There's a strange concept to many "forbidden love" stories from the 1950s that often has me rolling my eyes - the tragic twist.
Years ago, I remember watching the Douglas Sirk movie, "All That Heaven Allows," which is about a middle-aged woman in small town falling for a much younger man. It was competently handled, if a bit uncomfortable to watch at times, but the only thing I remember is the tragic twist that comes near the end and how out of nowhere and infuriating it made me. I watched the film with a large group and I recall a few people walking of the movie with their arms thrown up in frustration at how absurd and unnecessary the ending felt.
I now realize that "All That Heaven Allows" was not the only one to do this, as "An Affair to Remember" has a similar scene that makes everything that came before this moment feel wasted and everything that comes after hard to watch.
To be fair, I went into "An Affair to Remember" expecting a much different movie - Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the later years of their careers. I went in thinking this would be more of a screwball comedy, with lots of wordplay and sarcasm from Cary Grant, similar to his suave jerk persona in "North by Northwest" with some light romance with lost souls looking for another chance to love again.
And for about the first hour that is close to what we get. Grant plays a painter and well-known playboy, who is about to be married, and Kerr plays an aging nightclub singer, who is in an unhappy marriage, and the two meet on an ocean liner on its way from Europe to New York. They develop a friendship that quickly turns into a romance when Kerr sees there is more to Grant than just the party boy. As the cruise ends, they profess their feeling for one another, but are concerned about their committed relationships. So they make a promise - They will meet at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. If they are both up there, they will get married that day, but if one does not make it, then they will know it wasn't meant to be.
I will not give away the tragic twist ending, but let's just say it causes a drastic shift in the movie that was completely avoidable. This change occurs about two-thirds of the way through the film, and suddenly the film changes from a forbidden love story to one of acceptance. This works at times, but other times it comes across as the filmmakers not having enough material to work with so they insert at least two scenes of children singing instead.
These two stories are so drastically different that I lost interest the moment this tragic twist occurred. It also doesn't help that all the drama of this situation could have been avoided if either of them picked up the telephone and told the other exactly what happened. Instead, we get a third act where both characters think the other is a terrible person and needs to constantly be reminded of that.
At its best, "An Affair to Remember" is "North by Northwest"-lite - Funny, over-the-top banter from Cary Grant while he takes the opportunity to put the moves on a woman. It its worst, the film is groan-inducing and hard to get through without screaming at your TV screen. It's like watching two long lost lovers waiting for the other all night long, talking about how the other is a terrible human being, when all along they just got the addresses mixed up - You're invested in their struggle, but appalled at how stubborn and stupid they can be.
Final Grade: C
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