An Affair to Remember [G]

The title sounds like a romance of epic proportions with the air and pomp of Gone With the Wind or Titanic, and whilst An Affair to Remember is all about two lovers overcoming obstacles and adversity during the ‘Golden Age’ of cinema, it’s much more than just a lengthy love story. Promoted in Sleepless in Seattle as the best chick flick to watch on a girls’ night-in with chocolates and tissues, Leo McCarey’s classic tale of attraction and changing life paths is beautiful and timeless, even though the drama and tragedy of the second half is probably wasted on a generation of viewers who have grown up with mobile phones. 

Chronicling the instant attraction between playboy Nicky Ferrante (Cary Grant) and nightclub singer Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) when they meet aboard a luxury cruise ship, the film follows the betrothed lovers as they make a pact to get their lives together and meet atop the Empire State Building in six months time. In true tragic romance fashion, disaster strikes and prevents the meeting from taking place and audiences are left dying to know if the two will ever be together. 

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, An Affair to Remember is arguably not all that different from the rocky romances of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo + Juliet), Tony and Maria (West Side Story) or Christian and Satine (Moulin Rouge!), however the twist here is that the leading lovers prove to be their own worst enemies rather than their families or social status. Whilst both of them are engaged to other people when the movie starts and a tragedy of a physical nature prevents them from keeping their pact, during the second half of the film it’s their own pride, stubbornness, and wounded egos that stop a happy ending from budding sooner. Whilst love is strong, it does not conquer all and it’s not until coincidence intervenes that hope for the two lovers is rekindled. 

Kerr and Grant as the romantic leads depict a romance that is not clichéd but completely natural, almost understated, and you get a sense that they are comfortable in each other’s company. Their snappy dialogue and quick-witted remarks to one another are a bit reminiscent of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey, providing a lot of the film’s comedy, but they also do well in the more dramatic scenes, especially Grant when his cynical walls come crashing down as he puts two and two together at the climax. 

If a bad word must be said about the movie, it would only be that it’s a little heavy on the songs and volume of the accompanying score, but Angela Eriggo said it all when she wrote “even Kerr coaching a choir of overly cute urchins can’t spoil the reunion, revelation, and big-clinch climax.”* Whilst some of its original tragic and dramatic clout has been lost a little over the decades, An Affair to Remember still has the ability to spring up the tears that Sleepless in Seattle promises and has everything you could want in a romantic drama. 

Starring: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Charles Watts, Fortunio Bonanova, and George Winslow.

* Angla Errigo, cited from '1001 Films You Must See Before You Die', Steven Jay Schneider ed. 2009