Review of Charade (1963) by Jonathan B — 21 Jan 2011

Romantic Comedy? Thriller? Fashion show? Adventure? Suspense? While all of Auderey's clothing was supplied by Givenchy, this film can be summed up as a Sus-venture-com-rom-er.

You cannot go wrong with Hepburn and Grant. This shit is classy. Like the Sartorialist kind of classy. Like that Euro classy, where they drink tea and eat venison and fennel pork loin. They sit at a river side cafe, and eat crackers and cheese that costs $20 a pound. It's creamy and slightly nutty but altogether has a taste that can only be described as 'cheesy'...the cheese, not the movie.

But also in this film you have a man with a hook hand, a corduroy suit wearing James Coburn and moustached Walter Matthau.

I'll say that when this film started I had no idea what I was getting into. And ultimately I was really satisfied with it, even though perhaps it turned out to be .0001% more romantic than thriller. But who's counting..right? There were some truly suspenseful moments as well as some truly hilarious ones. I don't know how Donen did it, balanced it all, I haven't really seen anything like it before. Imean you can have serious comedies, but suspenseful romantic comedies?

Overall worth a shot if you like rom-com's, or thrillers or adventure type films (not Indiana Jones type adventure but enough).