Sabrina

I've wanted to watch Sabrina for a while.  I mean, a classic film with Bogart and Hepburn and then redone with Harrison Ford?  Who wouldn't be curious.  I love Bogey and I love Harrison Ford, so I was anxious for the chance to see them tackle the same role.  I figured if a role was good enough to merit performances from two actors who were both among the top of their respective generations (if not all generations), both after they were well recognized as big time stars I might add, then I should expect, not only phenomenal performances from both leading men, but also two all around astounding films.

First, a few thoughts on the elements that are common through both films, namely the plot.  If you've read my blog before, you know I care far more about story than any other aspect of film, since film is, at it's root, a form of storytelling.  This story has so much potential.  I love the idea of a business man being forced to woo a young woman to keep her out of the way while a big business deal goes down.  Of course, it's perfectly set up for the work-aholic to fall in love with the young woman and then be caught between this new lovely person in his life and his company, which has been his life for as long as he can remember.  The big problem with the entire set up, of course, is for us to care, we have to see the business man as a human with lovable characteristics and deep feelings, yet also be convinced that he's so heavily committed to his work that he'd be willing to abuse a woman for financial gain.  When it comes down to it, both actors did a great job, but with neither performance was I fully convinced they were only playing one character.  The man falling in love with the pretty girl wasn't the same guy that was using her to get ahead.  Both actors were so good at pretending to pretend to be nice to the girl, that I completely lost the ruthless businessman that they were supposed to be.  Impressive though it may be, I felt that the character just was never as unpleasant to be around as they should have been.  The softening of the character as they fell in love just didn't have any weight, because I never really saw him as hardened to begin with.  Other than that one flaw, I must say that the story was great and I can see why the influence of the original play has spread to become one of the staples of romantic comedy.

In the original film, I was immediately thrown off by the sudden introduction of suicide as a potential theme of the story.  I expected something light and here I am watching Audrey Hepburn write a suicide note.  I was shocked.  But the romantic music kept playing and the attempt to kill herself ended up playing out for a couple laughs and then to become a bonding experience between the two leads.  It never felt like suicide was treated as a heavy topic.  By far I felt that was my biggest complaint of the film.  As I looked forward to watching the remake, I was expecting two things; first that it would be modernized, secondly that they'd treat the suicide issues with a more modern perspective and it would be a little darker and certainly not laughed at.  Well, the film was modernized while doing a great job of staying on track, and I wasn't laughing at suicide, but there was no mention of suicide to laugh at.  Rather than give it the serious treatment it deserved, it was removed.  Frankly, I felt like that was the one thing that I really believed about Bogey's portrayal.  I could believe a business man would sympathize with a young lady attempting suicide, because it's incredibly likely that a man that has been that absorbed into his job would have considered it himself.  I felt like when Bogey mentioned his suicidal thoughts that that was the first time he really opened up and wasn't just manipulating Sabrina, but I had no such luck with Ford's performance.  Honestly, that one removal took out his best chance of one upping Bogart.  Unfortunately, without a real serious and deeply rooted reason to open up to Sabrina, Ford was left with a daydream as his motivation to fall in love.  I didn't buy it.

Overall, Sabrina, either one, is a watch once, maybe twice, kind of movie.  I wouldn't own either one unless there were something specific that related to my relationship with my wife in the story, but we never spontaneously went to Paris when we first fell in love, her dad never worked for my parents, and she didn't have a crush on my brother while she was growing up, so, we'll pass on this one.