Love Affair (1994)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, are so much better than Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant. The love and sex appeal show on screen. But why they put Deborah Kerr with Cary Grant, I don't know. She was awful in that movie. But thank goodness for Warren and Annette, they revived it and did a fabulous job. There version is so much better. You can see the chemistry in their relationship. It is very enjoyable to watch and still cry at the end. Speaking of the end, their version is believable and see they really have emotion for each other. Course they are together in real life too, but they did a perfect job of acting. Loved it! and bought the movie too.

You can't help but compare this to An Affair to Remember, whether you've seen the original Love Affair, or not. The cinematography of this film is very dated, unfortunately during a period when there seemed to have been a 'darker the better' policy, even outdoors during daylight. In stark contrast to An Affair to Remember which was always bright enough to see the scene. Grant and Kerr are a more believable couple than Beatty and Bening, ironically. Bening's affection for her character's friend (Meg Ryan) in the Women was more obvious than her love for Beatty's character in this movie. Maybe Beatty's inadequacies were just more obvious next to the brilliance of Katherine Hepburn, but his character's love of his aged relative was not obvious at all. Thinking back on the movie 24 hours after seeing it for the first time, I can't think of any reason why I'd recommend it.

If you know the story, and have seen the earlier versions, this is still worth a viewing. The current drama/romance genre is something I am not often fond of, yet this film had a resonance, especially for the holiday season.No, it is not the same as the Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant version, but that is a bit dated. There is a cameo scene with Katharine Hepburn, she as Beatty's great- aunt, he as someone at a crossroads in his life; wondering if there will be a turning point. Bening is a singer/actress, they agree to meet in NY, a year after if neither is attached to their current significant other. Beatty and Bening actually make a nice couple, for me to have enjoyed this film at Christmas, points to the fact that it is not another romantic comedy we can toss out ( a rare thing) probably because Beatty and Bening have a believable chemistry together.The final scene, sad as it is Christmas, and the children singing a version of the Beatles' "I will" is atmospheric. It was (for me anyway ) a more moving scene than the older version, perhaps because the children singing in the 1950's version- were singing a song from that 1950's time period....Highly recommended. 8/10

Indeed people should generally not wait for the same thing if it comes, say, from Hollywood or Europe. In the case of "Love Affair" people should watch opera rather than this genre -- I highly recommend "Carmen" with Julia Miguenes-Johnson and Placido Domingo (1984) -- the epitome of a love affair as immortal as always! Titles chosen by the movie industry have -- alas! -- transcended good taste, and with it, semantic borders: maybe simply by following the pattern of our modern lives where the element of surprise has been discarded and replaced by circadian and pecuniary worries. Comparing Cary Grant to Warren Beatty (in terms of this being a remake) is like putting Berlioz next to Madonna!