Woman of the Year
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Movie Reviews of Woman of the Year
Movie Review: A Really Awesome Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow is all I can say after watching this movie! Even though they are acting in a movie you can see their love for each other.Its just amazing. Its such a good movie, I would reccomend it to anyone!Movie Review: The "odd couple" love story
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the first of the nine movies Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made together. The on-screen romance was carried over into their private lives that lasted 25 years. New York Times in its obituary column wrote "Her life and career were dominated by her love affair with Spencer Tracy, which created one of the great romantic legends and brilliant movie pairings of their day." Katharine Hepburn's independent life and strong-willed movie characters made her a role model for generations of young women for more than 60 years. Hepburn and Tracy became one of Hollywood's most recognizable couples. Hepburn had an agile mind and distinctive New England accent, which was complemented by Tracy's machismo
Woman of the year is a light hearted romantic comedy, which examines the lives of professional couples and how it affects their private lives. As you can guess there is certain amount of drama in the midst of a love story. The beautiful, brilliant and independent journalist Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) and the macho sportswriter Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) clash over whether athletic events should be suspended for the duration of the war. She insists that sports column be abolished during war, but Sam believes that it is essential for morale. The editor brings them together to make peace but the pair when they see each other for the first time, they fall in love! When they start dating, things don't go easy on them. When Sam takes her to a ball game, Tess like the game, but when Tess introduces Sam to her international friends, he is not too thrilled. Nonetheless, they marry, but he quickly discovers she is so busy with her profession and that she has no time for him. When she adopts a war orphan without discussing with him, he realizes a drastic step must be taken, because she has no idea of being a wife and mother.
There are some very funny scenes in the movie; one of my favorite is when Tess drives back to Sam's apartment while he is sleeping; she decides to prove herself as a wife and a good cook. Using a recipe book she prepares his breakfast, which awakens Sam, and he silently watches as everything goes wrong for Tess, she breakdown when coffeepot and waffle iron both overflow, and the kitchen get messy. Sam then embraces her and says he doesn't want to change her; he merely wants their marriage to come first. The ending is somewhat discomforting for modern day feminists as it sounds too anti-family to be an independent professional woman. After all, this movie was made for audience of the year 1942, and they wouldn't have a liked it any other way than a woman learns a lesson, finally, that she has to be a caring wife, and not just a professional journalist and a political activist.
1. The Hepburn & Tracy Signature Collection (Woman of the Year / Pat and Mike / Adam's Rib / The Spencer Tracy Legacy)
2. TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romantic Comedies (Adam's Rib / Woman of the Year / The Philadelphia Story / Bringing Up Baby)
3. Katharine Hepburn Collection (Morning Glory / Undercurrent / Sylvia Scarlett / Without Love / Dragon Seed / The Corn Is Green [1979])
Movie Review: Craig's Wife
Summary: 4 Stars
Everything you've heard about WOMAN OF THE YEAR is true. This was the first pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and, yes, the chemistry IS evident. Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner's script is intelligent and the dialogue is snappy for the most part. It does touch lightly on "issues of the day" (the war, obviously--and of course, the proverbial "battle of the sexes," the subtext of just about EVERY Tracy-Hepburn film ever made). And,yes, the baseball scene is pretty darn great.
But the film is not an unqualified success. The kitchen disaster scene towards the movie's end is cliched and just too darn slow. The flying toast, the boiling over coffee and that cussed watched pot that keeps boiling over are enough to try the patience of almost any contemporary viewer. Tracy is consigned to shameless mugging throughout the entire proceedings. Probably not his fault. I'm sure he was dutifully taking direction. But director George Stephens' sense of pacing--so effective in the baseball scene--fails him here.
The entire scene seems lifted from a THREE STOOGES short and is totally out of place with the sophisticated tone of the rest of the film.
Many have pointed out that the shift from breezy comedy to near-melodrama is a bit jarring at times. I would have to say that the writers deserve some credit for making the script a bit more nuanced than it might have been otherwise. Hepburn's change-of-heart at her father's wedding is not entirely convincing, but interestingly enough Tracy is not entirely convinced either. He calls her out on this very point. Is it a true change of heart or merely another of her many self-dramatizing whims?
And speaking of whims, am I the only viewer who found the segment with Chris, the young Greek orphan, kind of disturbing? That Kate's ambitious Tess Harding character would feel almost obliged to adopt a young refugee (and foist the child on her unsuspecting husband) is dubious enough. That she would neglect him on top of that, however, risks making her once charmingly eccentric character almost monstrous.
In fact, I kept wondering about the kid even after the big reconciliation scene between the principles. Did anyone think about going back to the orphanage and fetching the youngster and maybe starting a "real" family. By the film's end, you feel that Sam and Tess Harding Craig are coming to terms with themselves and their marriage. They get to start anew,and you're glad for them. But what about that poor kid?
Movie Review: Seminal Tracy-Hepburn Vehicle Teeters Precariously Between Comedy and Melodrama
Summary: 4 Stars
Katharine Hepburn already established the headstrong aspect of her screen persona in 1938's "Holiday" and 1940's "The Philadelphia Story", but she adds a worldly intellect and a beguiling sexual ardor that prove most fetching in her portrayal of multilingual political journalist Tess Harding in this 1942 film classic. In her first teaming with lifelong off-screen partner Spencer Tracy, she sets off palpable sparks with the normally taciturn actor, who plays sportswriter Sam Craig working at the same newspaper. Written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin, the plot is about the characters' whirlwind courtship from an immediate sexual attraction to an impulsive marriage, all the while struggling with each other's priorities. Needless to say, given that it's a product of its era, it becomes a matter of time before Tess bends to Sam's will but not until some intriguing observations are made about sex roles in a basically fractious relationship.
However, rather than the comic fireworks generated by their later collaboration, 1949's "Adam's Rib", this film treads in unexpectedly sentimental melodrama, especially in the episodes where Tess has to let go of a Greek orphan she wants to adopt and in the climactic scene when she tearfully recognizes her wifely responsibilities as her aunt Ellen marries her father. Still, the pair's familiar bantering occurs when Sam explains the rules of baseball to Tess and in the final feminist reversal as she fails miserably in her attempt at domesticity. George Stevens directed the film, and he displays his sure hand with actors and an acute sense of craftsmanship throughout. Intriguingly, for a Tracy-Hepburn vehicle, it feels much more like her movie than his, and consequently their rapport is not quite up to their normal standard here. The supporting characters also feel more incidental here, even though Fay Bainter shines briefly as Ellen. It's not my favorite of their films together, but it is certainly required viewing for their fans. There are no extras with the 2000 DVD.
Movie Review: Irresistible Forces
Summary: 4 Stars
Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) works as a sports writer at the New York Chronicle. Overall he's a solid, unflappable fellow, but when he hears international columnist Tess Harding (Katherine Hepburn) support the abolition of baseball during wartime, he can't resist retaliating in print. The battle is soon joined, and it's not long before the editor calls them together for a cease-fire. One look at Tess, though, and Sam is a goner. Their mutual attraction can't be denied, and it's not long before they're married.
But what is Sam in for? Tess' career has a life of its own, and he can barely get a moment with her alone. Most of the time, he's trailing in her wake along with countless diplomats, refugees and other international figures. While Sam is successful at his work, it's a world Tess has little time for - and it's not long before the relationship feels the strain.
"Woman of the Year" happily manages to avoid many of the pitfalls inherent in stories focused on sexual politics. While Tess' career is not endorsed as inherently fulfilling, typical gender roles aren't offered as the solution (however much Tess would like to believe they are). Indeed, the film asks for compromise and balance from its characters - in fact, no clear solution is reached by the film's end. It's up to the viewer to hope that they'll find one.
One of the film's delights is that's precisely what you do wish. It's easy to see from their debut why Hepburn and Tracy went on to become one of cinema's most indelible teams, making eight more films together. Their deep mutual affection for one another (on and off the set) lights up the screen. It's a terrific, palpable energy.
The screenplay won the Oscar for 1942, and it's a wonderful complement to the cast. The dialogue bubbles with wit and pleases with brains - a romantic comedy tha's so good, you suddently realize what so many others have tried to do. Give it a look!