THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410280798
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
NOW, WAIT a minute!
I know that luv in the movies is more overwrought than luv anywhere else, but consider the possibilities. If you were wildly in love with Annette Bening and she didn't keep a date, wouldn't you give her a telephone call? Maybe she got hit by a car or something.
According to ``Love Affair,'' the third version of a plot that was unlikely back in 1939 and more so now, Warren Beatty would just mope and leave fate to do its own work. On her side, pride would prevent her from contacting him because, above all, she wouldn't want to take the chance of being pitied. The two simply feel it is destiny that they never meet again.
Before now, Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne (1939) had the same communication problems. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr didn't know how to handle a broken date, either. Their 1957 version was in Cinemascope and was called ``An Affair to Remember.'' The plausibility of the script was delightfully debated last year in ``Sleepless in Seattle.''
This second remake of ``Love Affair'' is, surprisingly, a pure remake. Beatty, who produced, co-wrote and cast himself as the aging playboy, has not so much updated as he has repeated the plot. Only the modes of transportation have changed. In the earlier versions, the playboy and the singer meet on a luxury liner on the way to Europe. In 1994, they meet on a plane to Australia. When they make an emergency landing in the South Pacific, they hitch a ride on a curious-looking Russian trawler.
All those plot implausibilities would be swept away in a flurry of passion if the chemistry between the two lovers were hot. Curiously, it is not. Beatty co-stars with his real-life wife, the amazingly translucent Bening. Apparently, they play their roles with more conviction at home. On screen, he often looks as if he is sleepwalking. He gets his only laugh when he says, ``They say that I've never been faithful to anyone in my life.''
On the other hand, Bening, fulfilling the promise of her stellar performances in ``The Grifters'' and ``Valmont,'' fairly lights up the screen. She's assured. She's sophisticated. She walks away with the picture in a way that immediately makes us want to see more, much more. The two were much sexier in ``Bugsy,'' but that, after all, was a kind of lowlife affair. Here, they are asked to be sweet and affectionate.
They are both engaged to other people - he to Kate Capshaw, she to Pierce Brosnan. When they get back to the States, they agree to a cooling off period - and to meet atop the Empire State Building in three months if they're still in love. Fate steps in and they don't meet.
Pride, is seems, is the villain, but, well . . . it's a well known plot.
It's pretty tame material, but there is a big reason to rush out and buy a ticket anyway. It's the presence of the justifiable legend, Katharine Hepburn. She plays Beatty's aunt, a woman who lives in an island paradise and takes time out to explain to Bening about why she should love Beatty, and tame him down.
The result, though, is more sad than endearing. When you think this may be Hepburn's last film, it is alarming. She does not take calmly to what one would think would be a sweet old lady role. (Irrepressible Maria Ouspenskaya played the part with a good deal more dignity in the 1957 version.) Here, Hepburn is determined to be more shocking and daring than elegant. Indeed, the only vulgarity in an otherwise chaste film is uttered by Hepburn, a scene that does not become the unique status of her legend.
The film, as usual for a Warren Beatty production, has top-notch production values, including a lush score by Ennio Moricone. The soft-focus photography whenever there is a close-up of the leading man is so obvious that it becomes laughable. Not since the late years of Doris Day has there been such obviously ``special'' photography.
One can only wonder why Capshaw (Mrs. Steven Spielberg) would take such a small role. You also wonder why Bening would so curtly dismiss Brosnan in favor of this rather demure leading man. (Beatty is cast as an ex-NFL star who is now a sportscaster.)
``Love Affair'' is not the disaster that some are making it out to be. Having made the choice to make a remake, Beatty has stuck to his convictions and made it sweet and quiet. The trouble is the two leads don't produce any fireworks.
It's a tame affair. Bening, looking like an old-time movie star of the first rank. She, and the curious misuse of Hepburn, are the only reasons to see the film. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DAVID JAMES
Warren Beatty and Kate Capshaw star in ``Love Affair.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Love Affair''
Cast: Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Katharine Hepburn, Kate
Capshaw, Pierce Brosnan, Garry Shandling,
MPAA rating: PG (could have been a G if it wasn't, believe it
not, for the language of Katharine Hepburn in one scene)
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Cinemark Movies 10, Chesapeake; Janaf, Norfolk;
Commodore Theatre, Portsmouth; Kemps River Crossing, Lynnhaven 8,
Pembroke, Surf-N-Sand, Virginia Beach
by CNB