Review of An Affair to Remember (1957) by Jim H — 18 Jul 2011

A playboy and a woman meet on a cruise ship and agree to meet six months later on the roof of the Empire State Building.

There are moments when Cary Grant is irresistibly charming and Deborah Kerr exhibits that sensual grace that only women in old movies can master and moments when director Leo McCarey is able to capture the perfect image to tell an entire story (instead of a kiss, we see Ferrante's feet re-trace their steps up stairs, and the "hello" in the theater was exceptional acting and directing) - these are the moments that remind me that I'm watching a classic. But the rest of the film is quite simply bad. Aside from frightfully annoying children singing moralistic balderdash for the grand total of ten minutes (approximately - I was trying to puncture my eardrum with a broken Coke bottle), the characters' romance is routinely interrupted by plot elements that mean as much to them as they do to us (meaning: nothing). For example, Ferrante and McKay's attitude toward the boat knowing about their romance is insouciant, but the script makes it a big deal, and further, each leaves his/her other lover with such quick abandon that it's hard to understand what drove them to be so secretive during the first hour of the film.

Overall, though An Affair to Remember is a recognizable romantic classic, it is only so highly regarded for a few scenes; the rest is just bad filmmaking.