Love Story
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Movie Reviews of Love Story
Movie Review: A walk to Remember
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie was very touching.... its a tearjerker for sure.... the movie " A Walk to Remember" is a lot like "love story" but jenny isn't a saint.....Movie Review: An old classic
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is "The Notebook" of the 70's generation. If you like love stories this one should be on you must see list.Movie Review: What Does Constitute an Apology?
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is sad.
This film is arrogant.
This film is simple.
This film is edited poorly.
This film means never having to say you're sorry.
These are just a few random thoughts conjured up while recently watching the 1970s blockbuster hit, "Love Story". It is the summer of blockbusters, and while $10 or more is a bit like paying for gas at the local Cineplex, this critic decided to watch old blockbusters in the comfort of his cool, quiet, and subdued home. Having read the book many years ago, I was eager to see how exactly it would translate onto the bigger screen. There was little action, little conflict, and even a smaller plot - it was, simply put, a "love story". Two Ivy-leaguers meet, they argue with their parents, they marry, and suddenly tragedy strikes. It is simple, like love - and it does translate well onto the screen with our two leads being Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw. Together their chemistry is shattering, bring to life a small piece of Americana, and the depth of life. As Jennifer and Oliver pour their literal hearts out on screen, the issues of "Love Story", while not many, do break free and run rampant throughout. The lacking development, the clutter of language, the electric music, and the cheapened edits all culminate as utter distracts to this film. These errors pull from the story, creating a mediocre tale that could have been the greatest love story ever sold.
Let me begin by saying that as much criticism as I give "Love Story", it still (and probably will with another viewing) brought a tear to my eye. It is ultimately a story about the power of love, and even if you can see through the cliché language, parts of this film will remind you of a love you have or once had. It has sentimental value that presses on the right heartstrings at the right time. We can thank, and denounce at the same time, writer Erich Segal for this. His story takes us to love, but his words violently pull us away. Throughout this film, one cannot help but wonder if O'Neal and MacGraw read their lines off cue-cards behind them, or if the words coming from their mouths were to be staples of cliché for decades of romantic films to follow. In one corner we have a witty, independent woman who is not afraid to speak her mind, in the other corner, we have a guy who takes direction well - OK - I get that, but what else is there about these characters that we could learn about. If this is to be a talking film, let the words they speak to each other express their emotion stronger - or at least develop a subplot around them that allows the viewer to see all the dimensions of both Oliver and Jennifer. I knew their connections, but I finished this film without really knowing them. From the book, one could hear their inner-voice, without that in the film, we were lead on a one-sided voyage through love without any potholes or pitfalls. Each and every time a conflict occurred, simple words were spoken, we were taken to a new city, and we began our story all over again. With conflict comes resolution, and one cannot resolve with just one phrase - "Love means not having to say your sorry".
Clarification. The simplicity of this story is what kept me glued to the screen the entire hour and a half. The acting force behind O'Neal and MacGraw was consistent throughout, providing me with excited moments, emotional moments, and a heavy cardboard aftertaste. While their characters were enjoyable to watch, they lacked the depth needed to really pull further at my heartstrings. I knew what sort of characters they were, but they needed to take one more step to fully make me believe they were who they were pretending to be. Earlier I used the word arrogant when describing this film through free association. I use this word because I believe writer Segal and director Hiller knew what they had for audiences by the end of their film, they knew that if they kept these two one-dimensional characters together long enough; they would have the audiences coming back by the third act. To me, this ploy seemed arrogant of them. Give us more, give us characters, give us at least impressive scenery - but instead we were handed one phrase and tears. Not enough.
Not complaining, but the music could have benefited from either a dedicated theme song or a better composer, the strum of the piano chords never quite hit that level of emotion I needed to bawl my eyes out. The music was potent at first, but by the second act, it felt stale of overplayed. It wasn't the theme music of Oliver and Jennifer's love that could have further strengthened their relationship. Coupled with elaborately bad edits, our film stands solely on the doorstep of the actors. They are good, not quite great, but worth viewing merely for those small moments of joy where you feel like you are watching a film, not being a sinister voyeur on their lives. "Love Story" is a sad love story, alas, it needed something more - a stronger element that would have shown Oliver's hatred for his father, his dedication to his life, and his ability to discover love anywhere in life. One needed a few more chapters of the book translated to the screen to make these characters full bodied enough to bring that climactic ending to a stand still. Instead, Hiller's direction just made it feel like an opus of clichés.
Overall, "Love Story" was worth the singular view, but repeat viewings will not be needed. The choice of casting Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw was superb, these were two people that could carry the weight of this world on their shoulders, but Hiller never gave it to them. There was never that "oh yea" moment in the film, where we suddenly realized who these two were, and why they were together ... mind, body, and spirit. Not thinking about the dreadful "A Walk to Remember", this film could benefit from a facelift. Build the two characters stronger together, introduce more problems for the two to solve, really illustrate the confusion between Oliver and his father, and I think you would have yet another blockbuster on your hands. This is a rich film, executed poorly, but the groundlings are there. "Love Story" felt like a cold flat soda - it still quenches your thirst on a hot day, but it just misses that punch. Worth at least one viewing for that romantic settling down in all of us.
Grade: *** ½ out of *****
Movie Review: "Love knows not its own depth, until the hour of separation."
Summary: 3 Stars
The sentimentality of "Love Story" ("What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?") is a hearty welcome retreat to the past... There is nothing to spoil love, trust, confidence or even the events... Jenny seems to die... She just escapes in loveliness...
Jenny (Ali MacGraw) is half of a pretty young married students from a working class background... And Oliver (Ryan O'Neal) is from a very wealthy family... Both have the predictable problems with disapproving parents... Both struggle along through hard times, until Oliver obtains a fine job with his own merit... When Jenny tries to get pregnant, the doctor finds out that she has an incurable disease, and has a very short time to live...
Ryan O'Neal plays well the intense sensitive rebel, giving a heart-breaking performance as the ultra-rich man's son who works to pay his way through law school when his father won't...
Ali MacGraw is good and touching in her portrait of Jenny, the dying heroine, the poor baker's daughter studying classical music at Radcliffe, the smart young girl who gives up her plans to study in Europe in order to marry Oliver... She never missed a 'shred of her beauty' in her role...
Ray Milland is the 60-year-old Oliver Barrett III... He is a strong, articulate, civilized millionaire from Boston who refuses to support his son in marrying a girl of such low social stature... He commands him instead to finish law school...
John Harley is Phil, the father of Jenny... For him, "Father's love is something to cherish and respect."
There is three sequences that I liked the most in the film:
- Jenny and Oliver wonderful kissing scene... From this point on, both were entirely engrossed with each other, ready to risk anything for love...
- Oliver's long day search looking for Jenny, until he sees her sitting, outside, on a stair... She forgot her keys... Jenny is comforted by Oliver who tries to apologize for his continual disputes... Jenny, all shaken, and with tears in her eyes and with an emotional voice stops him with words of deep affection: "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
- Oliver, sitting alone and lost to the world, uncertain and perplexed, unable to understand Jenny's tragic fate... If Jenny could spend an hour in his mind, a minute in his heart, a second in his soul to discover what he really feels loving her... Why Jenny has to die so young? Why destiny is against us sometimes, smashing all our hopes and happiness? Why we feel so impotent in front of the will of God? Why can't we understand that we are 'blessed with Life,' and this is our great gift, our true treasure! Barrett's millions could never save Jenny!
The Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran said once: "Love knows not its own depth, until the hour of separation." And let me say that 'nothing is more beautiful than the love that has weathered the storms of Life.' They say: Time mends a broken heart and true love never ends... But if true love never ended then time wouldn't have to mend... So "Love Story" was followed by "Oliver's Story".
Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw are splendid and beautifully matched... Arthur Hill's sincere direction commend the picture to a wide audience eager to a flood of tears...
"Love Story" won 7 Academy Award nominations and Frances Lai - touching music - mixed by Bach, Mozart and Handel, won an Oscar, enriching the beauty of the film...
An intense, tough-looking leading actor is seen: Tommy Lee Jones in his film debut...
Movie Review: Hmmmm......
Summary: 3 Stars
Yeah, this movie was kinda silly - predictable, corny, overwrought, and most of all, shamelessly manipulative. It had an extremely generic sounding title (kinda like naming a movie, "Action Adventure"), a repetitive and overly melodramatic musical score, amateurish storyline, stilted dialogue, and uninspired acting (except Ali Mcgraw - she CAN act). And what the heck did they mean by "Love means never having to say you're sorry!"? Now that really didn't make a lotta sense! God, the whole thing practically bordered on camp! But you know what, if you just go in to see it without any great expectations, but knowing full well what you're getting into, somehow it works! That's the genius of this movie - not great film making, just surprisingly entertaining fluff! Yeah, I hate to admit, I did enjoy it, even though I wasn't born when it was first released, and viewed the movie as a relic of an older generation. Ali Mcgraw was 32 at the time when the movie was made, playing the character of a girl between 20-25. Granted she was beautiful, but c'mon who were they fooling?? Still it's kind of hard to imagine any other actress who could play the Jennifer Cavaleri role better. Ms. Mcgraw with her cute smile, sweet voice, beautiful long hair, and dewey eyes helps make you overlook the obvious, well almost.... It was also kind of interesting to see a cameo appearance by a very young Tommy Lee Jones (with hair no less!). And it's interesting to know that the Oliver Barrett character was inspired by former Vice President Al Gore. I started thinking about this movie again when I saw the 2002 Oscars, and saw a very aged and bloated Ryan O'Neil and Ali Mcgraw (both in their 60's) coming on stage as presenters with the musical score from Love Story playing as they appeared. It was so surreal. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, kinda like my reaction to this movie....