Two for the Road (1967)

I Cried at the ending!

My god this movie is so touching and romantic. It is perhaps the only movie that I cried since Titanic. The best performance from Audrey Hepburn and my most favorite movie after Sabrina and My Fair Lady.
I was surprise when watching this movie because it is not the typical Audrey Hepburn movie (you know what I mean). And I seriously think it is hilarious when Audrey actually cussed in the movie- twice! haha. Not at all R-rated but hella funny.
Nevertheless, the movie leaves me bittersweet feeling and taught me that even though love is tough and it is possible that one day you and your partner are no longer interested in each other, it is the most wonderful gift to have love and be loved once in your life.
The ending is somewhat on the positive side. Making me cry so much when she say I'm back, I'm back, Mark.
The story is quite confusing at first because of so many intertwine story about their stages of relationship; however, it is easily recognize and differentiate with Audrey's hair and clothing style.
Great Movie. Love the story and ending. A+ September 11, 2008

Both style & substance

As a callow teenager, I didn't think much of this film. Now older & married, I appreciate it more & more each time I see it, discovering something new & insightful with each new viewing. Mark & Joanna seem like old friends to me now.

It's a fascinating piece of work, an intersection between the classic era of Hollywood filmmaking (then drawing to an end) & the fresh, experimental techniques of the 1960s. Does this make it a period piece? Well, it's certainly of its time ... but in a good way, as it embodies all the energy & vivid sense of life from that decade. And its somewhat golden, romantic glow is really timeless, since memories of the first days of love are so idealized & wondrous.

The cross-cutting between years is especially effective here, reinforcing the sense of memories under review, one leading to another in no particular order. The repetition of certain scenes & lines of dialogue, with VERY different emotional tones over the years, conveys the changes in this marriage succinctly & sharply.

And then there's the look of it! Audrey Hepburn & Albert Finney are both stunningly attractive, radiating beauty & sexuality with all the fire of the French sun above their heads. It's particularly good to see Hepburn playing a grown woman in all of her complexity -- while there was never a screen gamine to match hers, she was capable of so much more, and proves it here. Plus, she wears stylish clothes like a dream!

Some reviewers have complained about Albert Finney's portrayal of Mark -- self-centered, even brutal in his drive & confidence, so absolutely sure of his handsome irresistibility. But I think those are some of the qualities that attracted Joanna in the first place. She wanted someone to match her ... because of course she's just as aware of her own considerable qualities.

Does this make them shallow, self-absorbed? I don't think so. For any couple in love, especially in the prime of youth, there's really nobody else in the world -- certainly nobody else to match themselves. But as time goes by & a little more reality sets in, we see how they struggle & often stumble, trying to adjust to so many changes. Life has a way of overtaking the first blaze of romance, and not every marriage survives it.

And that's the question, after all. Can marriage survive the inevitabilities of growing up? "Two for the Road" explores that question in a meandering but surprisingly in-depth fashion. Along the way it provides us with a remarkable portrait of a couple, an era, and a classic style of filmmaking. The highly informative & entertaining commentary track by director Stanley Donen only adds to the pleasures of this film. Enthusiastically recommended!




August 27, 2008

Time changes everything

This is a movie that has suffered the onslaught of time. I believe it was probably seen as avant garde when it came out but now it feels dated.
The performances are fine but the actual story has lost a lot of its bite because of changing moral values. Maybe this was one of the movies that ushered the change? April 15, 2008

Sophisticated Sixties Sleeper very much of its time

Two for the Road is a 1967 comedy/drama about a marriage over a period of about 7 years (their first car has a Jan. 1960 sticker). The chronological juxtaposition is something reminiscent of "A Man and a Woman" as well as other French new wave films of the time. And the sophisticated take on marriage perhaps partially inspired by "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Audrey Hepburn gets to wear about 50 or so outfits mostly straight off the Carnaby Street racks. And it's interesting to see Albert Finney as the Alfie-type husband.

It's got some great comedy even if the recurring lost passport joke is too formulaic, and some highly sophisticated drama focusing on the problems of the marriage. And of course Henry Mancini's great score. March 2, 2008

Freeway of love

A swinging 60s version of Scenes from a Marriage. Director Stanley Donen whips up a masterful cinematic soufflé here, folding in a sophisticated script by Frederick Raphael, a generous helping of Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn, and topping it all off with a real cherry of a score by the great Henry Mancini. Donen follows the travails of a married couple over the years of their relationship, by constructing a series of non-linear flashbacks and flash-forwards (a structural device that has been utilized since by other filmmakers, but rarely as effectively). While ostensibly a "romantic comedy", Two For the Road is, at its heart, a thoughtful meditation on the nature of love and true commitment. Finney and Hepburn have great on-screen chemistry (and both were at the peak of their physical beauty-which doesn't hurt). Colorful European locales provide additional icing on the cake. This is one of those films (like The Way We Were) that some people form an emotional bond with. February 15, 2008

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