For Love of Ivy [PG]

For nine years Ivy Moore has been the loyal and dutiful housemaid of the Austin family. So, naturally they are astonished and devastated when she announces that she wishes to leave and move to the city to go to secretarial school. But no one is affected by Ivy’s choice as much as Tim, the youngest son who, in an attempt to get Ivy to stay, plays matchmaker and tricks a business partner and hustler into a love affair with Ivy. However, things don’t work out exactly as Tim expected. 

This is a very sweet ‘60s rom-com that harbours a lot of charm as well as racial, political, and gender themes as well as some fabulous costumes, set designs and music. If you think of a cross between 10 Things I Hate About You and GuessWho’s Coming to Dinner, then you have something akin to For Love of Ivy. 

There is a certain vibe one gets when watching comedies of a certain era. I don’t think there is any way to fully explain the feeling, but you can almost always tell when you’re watching say, a ‘90s comedy like TheFirst Wives Club or a ‘60s film like Rosemary’sBaby or The Anniversary. For Love of Ivy has that vibe of the ‘60s comedy: a small and simple film that runs purely on story, performances, and script. 

The cinematic qualities themselves are minimal: very simple camera angles and scene compositions, a favour of mid and wide shots, and a dependence on natural light. Everything about this movie, aside from maybe the story and script, is really simple and the emphasis is completely on the narrative, the characters, and the performances. 

When you have Sidney Portier as a debonair hustler by night and an upstanding gentlemen partner by day, you really don’t need much more. 

Portier’s performance is charming, endearing, and really quite funny. There are many scenes in which he’s in an environment where one would expect him to be out of place, but he appears so natural within them and that brings this great level of humour to the film. Plus also too the scenes where he indulges in ‘60s racial stereotypes, particularly concerning swinging and drugs, which is just very funny to watch because you can’t quite tell if he’s being sincere or sending it up. Either way, it works well and he’s without a doubt the best thing to watch in this movie. 

The depiction of the white, rich, Suburban family is pretty funny too with exaggerated stereotypes bouncing off each other like a ball pool of bouncy balls. We have the loud and completely oblivious businessman of a father, the socialite mother who wants to be everyone’s friend, the sophisticatedly promiscuous daughter, and the hippie burnout of a son. Place all these under one roof and it makes for a lot of noise and a lot of laughs. 

To be honest, Ivy herself could be argued as the weakest character, but maybe that’s what makes her the object of everyone’s love. Each of the characters in the film love Ivy in a different way and the fact that she’s a bit of a nothing character is really quite nice. 

This said, whilst I wasn’t taken with Ivy as a character, it can be perceived that the nothingness about her and the fine-but-nothing-special performance from Abbey Lincoln is actually quite a strong element of the movie. I wouldn’t stake my life on the claim, but it definitely can be perceived that way. 

Starring Nan Martin, Lauri Peters, Leon Bib, Lon Satton, Stanley Greene, Hugh Hurd, Carroll O’Connor, and beau Bridges, For Love of Ivy is a charming little comedy that’s simple and doesn’t pique the feelings of ‘aw’ to a particularly heightened level, but still manages to put a smile on one’s face and draw the odd, warm laugh. Filled with matchmaking, drama, romance, and comedy, it’s really very sweet.