Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Ha. You thought I was lying, didn't you? Confess! that when you read "I'll do a rec post soon I swear," you went, "Uh-huh Bibliovore, sure. Whatever."

O ye of little faith!

Movie: Charade
Director: Stanley Donen (who? yes, I know.)
Released: 1963

Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) has decided to leave her husband. But when she gets home from a ski trip, she finds that he's left her first . . . the apartment is stripped to the walls. And then she finds out that not only has he left her, and Paris, he's left the land of the living, too.

But hubby did leave her something to liven up her days--a little matter of a lot of missing money, and some very nasty guys that want it back. Now the only person she can trust to help her out as she scrambles to find the money, evade the bad guys, and keep herself alive is the man played by Cary Grant.

Thanks a lot, hubby.

I saw this movie a few weeks back and just rolled on the floor. Sure, it's about spies, murders, and nasty stuff, but it's also hucking filarious. That being said, it's a great suspense movie, too. Like the title implies, you never really know who you can trust or what their motives are, even up to the last moment.

Audrey Hepburn, while initially wide-eyed and naive in that way she does so well, has smarts of her own to counter Cary Grant's dizzying shifts in character. I said "the man played by" up there because this fella changes names about as often as he changes pants--an element that contributes both to the humor and the suspense. Nice one!

Sure, it's a forty-year-old movie and at times shows it (they smoke like very elegant chimneys, for one thing) but it's also fabulously written and genuinely entertaining. If your local video store doesn't have it, tell them they suck and go find it at the library.

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