Sabrina

This remake of Billy Wilder’s weak 50s romantic comedy minimizes the jaded, dirty-old-man aspect of the sub-Lubitsch original (a flaw it shares with Wilder’s Love in the Afternoon) with better casting. Humphrey Bogart certainly had his gifts, but Harrison Ford makes a better romantic lead as a tycoon opposite a gamine chauffeur’s daughter; and if Julia Ormond initially seems to be playing Audrey Hepburn rather than Sabrina, she eventually takes over the part for herself. Sydney Pollack directs with the sort of polish that was easy to take for granted two decades ago but almost looked like classicism in 1995. With Greg Kinnear (in the William Holden part), Nancy Marchand, and John Wood, in a script by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel. This is basically Hollywood nonsense with all the usual dishonesty, but it goes down easily. PG, 127 min. (JR)

This entry was posted in Featured Texts. Bookmark the permalink.