Review of Love Story (1933) by Brett C — 10 Dec 2014

Review In A Nutshell:

As a male, I am not ashamed to say that I do have an attraction for romantic stories or relationships, even more so if it was handled in such a way that demonstrates excellent chemistry and interesting character development. Love Story is one of those films that feels perfect to me on paper, but once I actually sat down and took in its one hour and 40 minutes, I was for the most part, left unimpressed. A film of this nature relies on the chemistry of its characters, if we are to follow a couple's entire life together; if done poorly, it would leave audiences bored or tired of watching unappealing characters interact on screen. The two central characters in this film are definitely written with enough detail that make them convincingly human, but the execution of fleshing out these characters and their relationship was just too heavy handed. The characters feel like they are trying too hard to impress its audience with their intelligent quirks and the films seems to try so hard to balance out sentimentality with pretentious romance in an off-balance beat. It also did not help that Ali MacGraw's performance was pushy, especially in regards to her delivery of dialogue. Ryan O'Neal thankfully does a decent job in the role, playing his role with a bit of ease, making it much easier to like his character. Right from the beginning, the film informs its audience that Jenny, MacGraw's character passes away; which to me is not a spoiler because it plainly tells you right from the get-go. Love Story attempts so forcefully to create tearful drama, but by the time misfortune strikes, I felt nothing for the characters that are suffering; the same goes for the cliché dysfunctional relationship between Oliver and his father, which lingers almost throughout the entire film. Films like Terms of Endearment achieves effortlessly that Love Story simply was unable to grasp; managing to tell a melodramatic tale and blending it with romantic elements, that rarely leaves one cringing and instead places them in a state of genuine sadness and admiration. Love Story is not a catastrophe but it does come close; it is thankfully saved by O'Neal's natural performance and the memorable musical score by Francis Lai.