Review of Funny Face (1932) by Catherine S — 30 Sep 2011

Funny Face is a good musical romp with great performances by Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, but felt empty at some parts and long at other parts.

Based on a musical of the same name, Funny Face stars Audrey Hepburn as Jo Stockton, a shy but very philisophical bookstore keeper in Greenwich Village, New York. One day, she is chosen by the president of Quality Magazine to become the Quality Girl, the girl to showcase the very feel of the whole magazine. It turns out she was chosen by one of the photographers, Dick Avery, played by Fred Astaire. The group goes to Paris for the photoshoot, and as you could imagine, love begins to grow between Jo and Dick.

The music in Funny Face is entertaining and well written, but what else could you expect from the Gershwin family? The acting is really great as expected and of course the dancing is entertaining. Now for the negatives. Once again, I don't think Hepburn can pull off being a "normal girl". While she can act the part, she never looked the part thus I never found her performance as a nerdy bookstore owner actually believable. They call her a plain-jane, but if her character's a plain-jane, the rest of us must be some sort of monstrosities! Also, her singing brings down many of the perfectly good music numbers. The cinematography is dated, with some of the scenes having a sepia tinge to them despite being "remastered". And on a more nitpicky note, I guess another reason I had problems with Funny Face is the focus on the fashion industry. I have no interest in fashion, and my experience with those who have interest or work in it have been mainly negative. So seeing a whole movie with them in it, it was almost too much. And, once again, the age gap between the two characters. While Astaire was probably in his late fourties at the time of filming, Hepburn was maybe 29 in the movie. That made their more young love relationship also a little iffy.

But either way, Funny Face is still an entertaining movie, just not one of my favorites. I bet most people will like this movie, but if you need a guranteed great performance from Audrey Hepburn, go watch "Sabrina", "Breakfast at Tiffany's" or "Roman Holiday". All of them are superior films. (Real rating: 84%).