Review of The Awful Truth (1937) by Felicia S — 09 Dec 2008

I didn't buy the relationship between the two leads at the start, since Cary Grant seemed to have more chemistry with the dog than Irene Dunne. I was more interested in seeing the outcome of Mr. Smith's story than the couple's.

Also, Bellamy was a pain in the ass, and the movie improves considerably after he's left. I felt the movie was just buying time until the inevitable reconciliation of the main characters. Still, this first portion of the movie has pretty damn good dialogue and a fair share of funny memorable moments, such as the dinner sequence, and really, every single moment with that dog.

But then, as Grant was struggling on the ground with a chair and Dunne lets out a small hint of a laugh while singing, something happened. I suddenly cared about them. For the first time, I saw a spark between them and something in their characters that couldn't be expressed through dialogue.

From this point on, I really started rooting for them and empathizing with Dunne's character. The scenes that follow are great and keep getting progressively better, until that amazing final scene at the cabin.

The dialogue and subtle acting in that scene are near perfection.