An Affair to Remember

Good romance, good comedy, with charming performances. There are a handful of musical numbers shoehorned in. Most of them are okay, but there's two sung by a throng of little brats that are incredibly annoying. The other thing that bugged me was that the second half hinges on one of those ridiculous Hollywood contrivances. Otherwise I liked it, even got a little choked up at times. Technicolor was made for Deborah Kerr and her startling red hair.

Okay, I get that it was the fifties, but TWO scenes with a buncha children singing? On one hand, good on them for picking the gangliest, weirdest looking children, but on the other, TWO SCENES!! Also, the film goes to wackytown in the last act. "How can we keep them apart for another twenty minutes? Oh, just have her get hit by a car and put her in a wheelchair!" Spoiler alert, by the way.

If you skip over the parts with the singing children it's a good film.

This woman is crazy. Why doesn't she just exchange phone numbers with Cary Grant instead of meeting at the top of the Empire STate building, why does she run into the street without looking, why doesn't she tell him why she didn't show up? Because she's an self-torturing poster child of masochistic 50's femininity. I love Grant and Kerr but the script is laughably dated; the plot, which has a tendency to grind to a halt every time people start singing, is like watching paint dry.

Singing children drag out and completely ruin an otherwise good romantic movie.

The first half is a mesmerizing romance, a perfect portrait of love between two people. It's sweet, charming, fun, and sincerely beautiful, and Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr are both in their element. The second half is a completely different movie -- contrived, sloppy, dull, and manipulative (not to mention the TWO completely irrelevant songs sung by children). It does manage to be incredibly sad, and it thankfully pulls up by the end. Overall, the good outweighs the bad by a fair amount.

The film is sidetracked too many times by pointless musical numbers, but the chemistry between Grant and Kerr is kinda fun to watch.

A classic romance. Very subtle by todays standards.

A by the numbers romance, it lives and dies on its leads. I love Grant and Kerr and the first half is rather enchanting despite the lack of originality, but the second half becomes tiresome and has several badly chosen interludes that drain much of the film's energy.

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Re-make of 1939's Love Affair. Very well done but predictable classic Hollywood romance with a solid script. Grant and Kerr are good as usual. I liked it slightly more than the original. The odd scenes with the children bring it down a bit. If you like this genre you can do a ton worse, though. The pace is a little slow at times, and the lack of virtually any tension from their other romantic interests is a little odd/hard to buy.

mermerizing romanticism and then changes completly. the finale is crazy. discusses love in an interesting and kinda contrversial way (yk regarding the affair). great chemistry hehe

Viewed November 20, 2021.

The first part of the movie (the "ship" part) seems like it will be a decent screwball comedy, with Grant tossing off his usual one-liners and Kerr giving it all right back. But then there's a sudden shift (the "land" part) and it feels like a completely different movie, one clearly meant to wring every melodramatic tear out of the viewer. There are too many musical interludes; I guess they were there so that viewers wouldn't wonder if Hepburn would have been better as the love interest.

https://esperwatchesfilms.tumblr.com/post/642933582464172033/an-affair-to-remember-1957

A charming melodrama with two of the screen's greatest stars. Charm and elegance abound, but some late child-driven musical numbers should have been left on the cutting floor

The minute they stepped of the boat the movie changed... to less good. Still an enjoyable movie, and I feel like watching more movies from "back then". *Good

A classic of its time and genre - the woman's weepie - slightly contrived but heavy on the romance and with a witty script - Some strange singing scenes involving cute children?

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Witty text and lightning rapport between Grant and Kerr. In the final act it succumbs to weepy melodramatics - an improbable contrivance that could be resolved with a simple explanation - putting a bit of a smear on an otherwise charming romance.

My favorite romance, orphans and all.

"I know, but I mean... Jesus, it's just ...rough." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/06/episode-62-fall-of-leo-mccarey-1952-1962.html

The singing scenes were long and useless, but besides that it was pretty good.

The movie was enjoyable till they got off the boat, then it went downhill quickly. Found the last 30 minutes so ridicules that I had a hard time finishing the film.

Compared to most modern romantic dramas this one is not afraid of letting the audience be alone with the quiet feelings of the characters. It takes its time because the story demands it. And it's all the better - and more romantic - for it. The two leads are excellent!

Both hits and misses, the latter being what prevent it being the great, great movie it should be.

Remake of the classic 1939 tragi-romance 'Love Affair' is beautifully made and has strong performances from Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, but feels completely unnecessary because the script is nearly identical to the original. I guess I can't fault Leo McCarey for wanting to revisit his own film, and it's still a fine film with a great story. I just prefer the original.

Anyone who finds the grandmother scene or the kid on the ship cloying will be in cinematic hell when the child's choir decides to start assaulting our senses. And then there's the whole problem of the cheesy dialogue, one of the most horribly contrived plotpoints I've seen in quite some while and the questionable and reductive attitude the film takes towards affairs. At least it has Cary Grant.

Just say you got blanked by a blank, I mean honestly.

The first half is probably the most romantic film I have ever seen. After that is diminishing returns.

watched: 2012, 2021

#463

" 'Weepies' may not be high art, but for those who love them, An Affair to Remember is the Mona Lisa."

A classic chick flick is still a chick flick, and even if this is much more watchable than modern romcoms, that is mainly due to the wonderful leads. The story (a remake of Love Affair) is schmaltzy and awkwardly melodramatic, complete with the usual contrivances and emotional manipulations. And there are no explosions! Seriously, wtf?!

Not very good. Watchable in parts. In others heavy-handed, corny, unfunny... oh, and the singing was excruciating.

I do not know why I watched this. Once again part of my screen language course, this had very little for me as a viewer or a student. It is trapped in the same decade it was made and is a great big runaround on a boat before turning domestic.

A dull remake of McCarey's earlier 1937 film, Love Affair. Cary Grant looks old and is saddled with an implausible character (he's rich! he's a ladies man! he paints! he's sensitive!) and Deborah Kerr doesn't do anything for me. The film trudges to its tear-jerking conclusion without ever feeling vital.

Excellent remake of "Love Affair." I like the original better (mostly because both Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne obviously respond to each other as artists), but I like this one a lot too. Grant and Kerr have great chemistry, and McCarey makes good use of the wide screen. Heck, I even like the singing children.

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# 452

The first half of this, peaking with the sequence at the grandmother's villa, is simply wonderful. McCarey's patience, exhibited in his extensive use of silences, allows beauty in art and transcendence in prayer to draw these two people together in a mysterious way that would be accomplished, in most movies, via dialogue. The second half is less successful, though the finale is quite affecting.