This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

First things first. I remember the first time I fell in love with Gary Cooper. Of course, I had seen some of his movies before, but I was a kid back then and nothing stuck for too long. Then, when I was about 20, I started watching (and enjoying) old movies and one day they showed this rather intense western on TV (The Hanging Tree) and I was instantly mesmerized by Cooper's beauty. He was 3 years older than in Love In The Afternoon. If someone had told me back then that such a stunning man was too old for me, I would have put them in the place they deserve: a labyrinth for meddling people, who need work hard to find the concept of "consenting adults". Cooper was nothing but a gorgeous hunk during his whole career.Don't get me wrong, Hollywood does have an issue with big age differences: The issue is that their arrow of time only points in one direction. They never pair much older actresses with younger actors, even though many are still beautiful and desirable in their 40's, 50's and older. The issue is that Hepburn never got a much younger on screen love interest, in spite of being beautiful all her life. Unfortunately, it looks like this imbalance doesn't seem to have an end.However, the age difference IS the reason for this movie to exist at all, so it worked for me 100%, even if trying to guess Ariane's age was a little distracting. I mean, at first I thought she was in her late twenties, but then they put her in pigtails (Hepburn looks ridiculous, btw) and made comments pretending to make her a few years younger. However, her friend, Michel, is clearly in his thirties and the other students are even older (some look middle-aged and balding). So after a little back and forth, I settled with Hepburn's true age or a couple of years younger. It makes her characterization somewhat weird, but it can be excused by her having lived a sheltered life and having Chevalier's character for a father.Hepburn is marvelous here, of course. After all, this is the kind of role she could play in her sleep. She and Cooper are very charming and funny together and I also love their dynamic with Chevalier. The plot has been explained many times here, so I'll just say that Hepburn's character, Ariane, is not a naive girl, who falls in love with the wrong man. She knows very well who and what he is and I would say that's the exact reason why she falls for him. She might lack experience in romantic love, but that doesn't make her dumb or a victim. She devises a plan to get him to fall in love with her. In fact, she's very deceptive and manipulative for a supposedly naive girl, but it works and it doesn't come off as creepy, because Hepburn is magical like that. Cooper plays the middle-aged Don Juan millionaire, Frank Flanagan, who is well into his 50's and still going strong in the female attention department. In his mind, there is no reason to complicate his busy life with a serious relationship. He is honest about it and doesn't deceive his lovers with false promises. It is this character, who goes through the big character growth, while everyone else remains more or less static. In the first half of the film, he's the cynical hit-and-run lover, while in the second half Ariane manages to get under his skin and torment him, until he's ready to feel true love. Cooper sells simmering vulnerability like nobody else and he does this here without unnecessary histrionics. He has the ability to keep a perfect balance between drama and comedy, that feels natural and real. I believe Mr. Flanagan, when he shows that he cares deeply for this lovely young woman. That's why the second half of the film, the part showing his transformation, is my favorite and why the final scene is one of the best and most beautiful romantic endings ever.My favorite scene (other than the final one) is the one with the drink carts going to and fro between Mr. Flanagan and the gypsies, while he listens to Ariane's recording and gets drunk. It's seamlessly fantastic!Chevalier is also great, of course! As Ariane's father, he couldn't have been more perfect. Protective and loving, but never stifling. He doesn't go crazy, when he learns the truth about Ariane and Mr. Flanagan, he's just understanding and tries to do the best for his daughter, even if that means letting her go.The band of gypsies was an inspired choice to accompany Mr. Flanagan in his amorous adventures. I like to think of them as a parallel to the detective's role in Ariane's life. Both worked as crutches, that needed to be left behind, to begin a new life.

This film by Billy Wilder features beautiful B&W photography. Gary Cooper stars as a supposedly smooth womanizer (Frank Flannagan) who cares little for the women he beds. Audrey Hepburn plays a younger woman (Ariane Chavasse) who is intrigued by his intrigues and becomes personally involved.Shot in France, the film conveys a cosmopolitan air that almost sells the idea that these two might connect emotionally. But Cooper is not smooth enough to pull if off (no surprise) and the relationship between the two does not convince. It's not an issue of age; it's about chemistry and personality. Bogart in "Sabrina" offered the same problem, though less so. As an example of another pairing that worked well despite a sizable age difference, consider Stewart and Kelly in "Rear Window".Frankly, I'm surprised that such obviously poor pairings plague numerous films, but apparently some believe that box office draws can overcome such issues.

This charming movie has an utterly ridiculous premise and an ending as implausible as it is predictable, and yet it works quite well. In the film, Audrey Hepburn is a young woman who lives with her private- detective father and is fascinated by his sordid cases, finding the affairs and suicides wildly romantic. She becomes involved with a particularly notorious playboy, Gary Cooper.People object to Cooper/Hepburn's 30-year age difference, but I think the problem is more Cooper than the age difference. Director Wilder originally offered the part to Cary Grant, who was only 3 years younger than Cooper and who played opposite Hepburn quite successfully a few years later in Charade. I think people would have been far less bothered with Grant in the role, both because he was a better actor than Cooper, who had limited range, and because Cooper seems somewhat weak and ill; apparently he had health problems. Even then, I didn't find him as awful as some did; he still had a certain folksy charm, even when playing a cad.The story is not, I think, entirely unrealistic. Hepburn's character was full of a foolish romanticism and Cooper's character fascinated her before they even met. If you can accept that a woman would be intrigued by an inveterate player (and ultimately there are women who are attracted to Casanovas), then Hepburn's fascination and dissembling make perfect sense, at least when aided by Hepburn's beautifully tuned performance. Young beautiful women do sometimes fall in love with powerful, much older men, even if it seems nuts that they do.Throughout the movie, I was worried that I would be aggravated by the ending I expected, but while I got pretty much that ending, I thought it actually worked well. Somehow Wilder waded into the absurdity so slowly and smoothly, and Hepburn and Chevalier as her father were so dead on, that I could believe the whole, ridiculous thing. This is also a beautifully directed movie. While it's a very slight comedy, there is a lovely formal structuralism to it. It is a movie that is clearly by a talented director, yet not a movie that is trying to show off those talents. The scene with the liquor tables is beautiful but also practical and unshowy. Everything is like that; nothing is extraneous.There is a lot to object to in this movie, particularly the rather indulgent view the film takes toward Cooper's unsavory character and the utter silliness of the whole thing. Yet Hepburn's radiance, Wilder's brilliance, and an amusing script make the movie far more enjoyable than it has any right to be.

I expected to like this film...Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Billy Wilder, Paris...But I was disappointed by its cynical manipulation and totally contrived ending.The great age difference between Cooper and Hepburn, made even more so by the fact that she's supposed to be a young student in this film (making him more like her grandfather), was remarked on, I believe, in some contemporary reviews. But this is not a reason to find fault with the relationship. It's more that it is difficult to understand how an intelligent young woman, albeit one who is somewhat naive and romantic, could be infatuated by, continue to be beguiled by, and eventually fall in love with the unpleasant lecher played by Cooper. Despite the charm that Gary Cooper has shown in many of his films, here he seems...well, tired and not really acting as though he at all believes in the rancid character he's playing, and he's right.The premise of the film is sour and cynical and the farce doesn't work. The ending injects a jarring sentimental note that only confirms the earlier implausibility of the "relationship" that the script would have you believe the two leads have. Doesn't work.Audrey Hepburn is her usual magical self, but even she can't make me believe in her character. She is certainly worth watching, however, for the moments when she is, indeed, someone who might appeal to the Cooper character as more than a one-night stand. Maurice Chevalier is surprisingly appealing here and doesn't lay on the French accent and mannerisms that he continued to polish over the years. But, again, he's done in by the script. In his very last scene in the film, he does a total flip-flop in point of view, again demonstrating the screen writers' (Wilder and Diamond) manipulation to ensure a romantically satisfying and totally unbelievable ending. So...nice musical score, lovely black and white cinematography, a charming Hepburn, an appealing Chevalier...but a Wilder misfire, big-time.