LOVE AFFAIR. Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron; written by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty; produced by Warren Beatty for Warner Bros. Starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. Rated PG-13 (mysteriously)
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Video store owners need to stock up on copies of a 1957 movie starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. It's called An Affair to Remember, and Love Affair is a not-so-successful remake of it.
But it does tell the same great romantic story; and it made me want to see the older movie again. To be fair, though, if you've never seen the earlier film, you probably would like Love Affair more than I did. That is, if you like romantic stories. Because, as I said, this is one of the best.
Mike (Beatty) and Terry (Bening) are engaged to other people but meet under romantic circumstances (their plane almost crashes in the South Seas) en route to Australia. A few longing looks, several screensful of gorgeous tropical scenery, and they decide to dump their fiances.
To give them each time to make the break, (and to give Mike, who is making a living at the pleasure of his intended, a chance to get another job) they plan to meet in three months. If either one changes their mind in that period, and doesn't show for the rendevous, the other will understand.
It's a sweet story, but a flimsy one, and for it to work, the characters have to be believeable and appealing. Grant and Kerr were, unquestionably. Beatty and Bening, only so-so.
Actually, Terry isn't the problem. It's easy to see how any guy could fall for her against his better judgement. I just had a hard time imagining that she could fall so for Mike. He is a lazy, self-centered womanizer, and though we're supposed to believe that his feelings for Terry are different, I'm afraid I wasn't convinced.
One of the aces up the sleeve of Love Affair, to help convince us of the specialness of Mike and Terry's relationship, is Katherine Hepburn, as Mike's aunt. And she comes close to getting the job done. A problem, though, is her appearance in the plot at all. She just happens to live on a gorgeous but out-of-the-way tropical isle that just happens to be on the route of the ship that picks up the stranded plane's passengers. Give me a break.
Auntie's appearance is just one of the contrivances the plot forces us to swallow. Knowing so much about Mike before he meets Terry, but knowing virtually nothing about her, is also disconcerting. Another complaint: the PG-13 rating must be a come-on, making audiences expect to see much more sex than is on view in the movie. It's as PG as the 1957 movie was.
All in all, I'd recommend a wait for the video of Love Affair. Or, go catch the better version now.
November 2, 1994