Review of The Barefoot Contessa (1954) by Tanya S — 24 Nov 2006

I love that Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner have a completely platonic relationship in this movie. I fully expected them to end up together, even if they broke up later. However, I was wrong, and I'm glad. They love each other, but not in that way. I'm very tired of implications that men and women can't be friends. (Even if I am attracted to some of my male friends and possibly vice versa, that's not the point; we're still friends.).

I liked the method of telling the story, too. I liked the memory-within-a-memory that we got near the end. It would have been a little more natural had the people all remembered one another slightly differently, but whatever.

I wanted a happily-ever-after, but I knew from the beginning we weren't going to get one. The ending we do get, however, is frankly shocking. I won't go into detail, but I think practically everyone involved made the wrong decision at one point or another during the last fifteen minutes of the picture.

Poor Maria was probably right. She probably should have stayed in Spain rather than risk what could happen to her in America. At very least, she should have controlled her impulses a little better. If she had, the movie might not have begun at her funeral.