“Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.”
~ “Terry” in An Affair to Remember
As we usher in the new year, our movie recommendation is An Affair to Remember, the classic 1957 romance starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. The film was director Leo McCarey’s reinvention of his own 1939 surprise hit Love Affair (with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne). Many consider the 1957 version one of Hollywood’s best love stories and best shipboard romances. (In a 1994 remake with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, the initial encounter has transitioned to an airplane.)
Initially, An Affair to Remember seems to be a tale of star-crossed lovers, as a tragedy interferes with the two protagonists’ plans to meet at the top of New York’s Empire State Building six months after the intense chemistry of their ocean liner meeting. However, the plot resolves in a happier direction on Christmas Eve, in a final scene that The Guardian described in 2010 as “retain[ing] its powers to enthral[l] and discombobulate.” Listing some of the reasons why she rated An Affair to Remember as one of the top romantic films of all time, The Guardian reviewer wrote:
“An Affair to Remember tosses and turns the emotions but never descends into schmaltz; it stays compelling—partly down to its smart, surprisingly sassy script, which often holds back when it could go for the cheap weep, but also because it is brought to us by two of the classiest acts in Hollywood history.”
Related:
An Affair to Remember (Wikipedia)
