Review of The Philadelphia Story (1940) by Gabriel A — 27 Oct 2015

I like classic films, particularly classic comedies because I have a strong affection for wit over the crass nonsense that passes for modern comedy. I love Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, so a 40s comedy starring those two should be a big win for me. Yet I was sadly disappointed. One of the issues I had with the film was Katharine Hepburn. While I certainly don't think she is a bad actress, I wasn't even slightly convinced that she felt genuine affection for any of the men in this film. There was no chemistry at all in those relationships. Therefore I wasn't interested in how she would decide because I didn't know if she even cared. That doesn't matter in some films, but I feel like this was intended as an early example of a romantic comedy, so selling the romance is extremely essential to the story.

But even romantic relationships without chemistry can still interest me if there is a good story or a lot of laughs. The real difficulty I had with this film was the fact that the dialogue was way too rapid-fire. I struggled to follow half of what was said, and even rewound some scenes just to make sure I was able to understand what was going on. Any humor that might have been included in the dialogue was lost on me because I didn't have time to react to it before 3 more lines had been delivered. I'm all for quick-witted humor, but The Philadelphia Story takes that term way too literal. There are a few sweet moments, and I might have chuckled once or twice, but this is a movie that fell drastically short of my expectations. Perhaps if I were willing to watch it more times I would follow the story better and get the subtle nuances, but there weren't enough positives to make me want to give this movie another chance.