moonspinner55 Review of Love Affair

Love Affair (1994)

Third (and worst) version of romantic story which goes back to 1939...

[3/10 · 7 October 2006]

Love at First Sight--in Designer Sunglasses. Real-life couple Warren Beatty and Annette Bening are the star-crossed lovers in this remake of 1939's "Love Affair", which in turn was remade as "An Affair to Remember" in 1957. It's a gauzy, soft-focus, soft-headed confection about a playboy who becomes smitten with an attractive woman while on his way to marry somebody else; she's also otherwise engaged, and their on-again/off-again relationship has the same old-fashioned complications as the other versions of this highly-concocted plot. The material is really only as good as the actors selling it, and Beatty and Bening are certainly a striking twosome. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have noticed that 37 years have passed since this tale had some merit, and the results are distinctly musty. Overall, there's not enough energy in the direction nor heart in the general handling to make this a memorable 'Affair'. *1/2 from ****