Excellent but underrated film

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Typical, predictable, seen-it-all-before story about a guy who gets involved with a terminally-ill girl.Richard Gere is supposed to be Mr. Wonderful in this "Love Story" rip-off with Winona Ryder as the sick chick. Many ideas from the latter movie are regurgitated here including the ice rink and hospital deathbed scenes.Things stay safe and sterile from the first hour of 'charming' date sequences, like the moment when a giggling Winona puts on one of the 'hats' she made (it looks like a bent-up coat hanger), all the way to the end of this Joan Chen-directed date flick when Winnie faints for the twentieth time, sparking Dick to once again exclaim another exasperated "Jeeeez!".Lame. Stick with "Love Story" (1970).

Will Keane (Richard Gere) is a womanizing restaurateur on the cover of a magazine. Charlotte Fielding (Winona Ryder) has her 22th birthday party at his restaurant. She makes weird little hats. Her grandmother (Elaine Stritch) knows him as an old friend of her mom. He starts flirting with her and maneuvers her to a date. After their first night together, he tells her that he can offer her nothing, and she tells him that she has a terminal heart tumor. Meanwhile there is a mystery woman Lisa Tyler (Vera Farmiga) around.There is a high ick factor especially since the movie hints at him and her mother having a thing in the past. She's playing a giggly little girl. She's literally giggling about him dancing with her mother. He's the weaselly Don Juan type. She's so young that she can't see that he was just trying to seduce her that first time around. She's so clueless that she's shocked by her mother's past with him. It's not romantic. It's just sleazy. Next to Gere, Winona Ryder is like a fawning teenager. And why do they have to keep talking about her mother? I understand that there is a May to December romance that gets turned upside down. It's not as poetic as the movie supposes. The chemistry is all wrong. If she doesn't start off as terminal, then it might make the movie more poetic. The dialog is fairly weak and there is limited tension in the story. I don't know what drives the movie if we rule out happily ever after right off the bat.

One of the worst pictures ever. By the end of the movie when she finally dies you wish she would have died in the first 5 min. of the movie. No chemistry between the two stars. Richard Gere always has the same stupid look on his face as he does in every film he is in. Winona should stick to her day job...shoplifting. These two are so dull on screen that all through the movie your just wishing Charlotte would go ahead and die and put us all out of our misery. The movie in itself is so predictable and has been done many times (ie: Love Story). Winona is just silly and Richard is just stupid. They are no Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan....

Well, I had very high expectations from this movie, because I like Geere, and in all the movies I've seen with him, he always did something to touch my heart. Rider is not one of my favorites, but anyway, I expected a lot more than what I've seen in this movie. First of all, the chemistry between the two is not there. You can feel they are just two actors with their roles and nothing more. Then the story is not necessarily old, but has no passion in it. Didn't touch me, didn't make me feel I am there, didn't squeeze any tear from me, as a similar movie did, "Sweet November", for example. The story line seems to be just without any salt or pepper. Like a child without imagination tells this to another child. There are no sparkles and most of all, it is so PREDICTABLE. I could say that each time she is having fun, she must get a heart crisis after this. It was TOO OBVIOUS. I like movies that keep me in the dark until the end, movies that are not predictable, movies that can make me feel there. This one didn't reach any of these things. I was disappointed by the story itself, the makeup, the intrigue, after all, I was disappointed by mostly anything. That's it.I recommend any of you, do not watch Sweet November BEFORE this movie, because otherwise Autumn in NY will seem like a silly low budget remake.1 out of 10 from me. And I rarely rate this low.