Matt Greene In the first half, "Affair" gives us lush visuals and a pair of humans so compelling, classy & impossibly romantic, we root for them even with all the underlying complexities. In the second half, the way the film treats people outside of the center couple is abysmal. The charm of the beginning disappears, as we're thrown back into their real lives…which may be the point. Ultimately, it's a starry-eyed fable about how our little heavens can never really last in this lifetime.

John Downes I had to watch this twice on account of I fell asleep the first time. So I went and looked at the reviews and it's good, they said, so I gave it another go. I wish, I really wish I hadn't bothered. First of all those ghastly kids. I hate kids in movies, whether they are the Dead- End variety in Angels with Dirty Faces, or (as here) when they are all wiped clean, polished and given songs to sing. In fact I hate that kind the most. Truly emetic.And then there's the improbable plot, the oh so nice grannie, and the pretense that Cary Grant's paintings are any good (they looked like the sort of cheap prints you buy in Woolworth's to me).No, just sentimental rubbish. Don't waste your time.

vincentlynch-moonoi When you buy a Blu Ray edition of an old film, you never quite know what you're going to get, With the nice boxed edition put out by 20th Century Fox, you get some very nice extras, including some rather revealing interviews about Cary Grant's love affairs and about Deborah Kerr's love affairs. But, we don't really buy Blu Ray for the extras. We buy them for a sparkling version of a beloved film. This edition gets off to a bad start. The credits and initial wide shot of Manhattan included pinkish snow while Vic Damone is singing the theme song, and then very grainy photography. Not a good omen. The way transitions occur, it's clear there has been an attempt at some restoration. But it's somewhat uneven. Most of a scene is good, just a little odd and the beginning and end of some scenes. However, in this case it is a better print than the last DVD edition I owned.There are those who say that this is the film that turned Cary Grant into the Cary Grant we all remember -- the epitome of a suave sophisticate. Of course, Cary Grant was around and sophisticated long before 1957, but this film is pretty much how we remember Cary Grant.I have long loved this film, although it is not on my top 5 list...though certainly in my top 10. The question is why. But that's easy. A remarkably witty script for the first half of the film. A remarkably sentimental script for the second half of the film. An outstanding performance by Cary Grant. An outstanding performance by Deborah Kerr.For the witty and/or sentimental script we have Delmer Daves ("The Petrified Forest"), Donald Ogden Stewart (who helped write the original film version), and Leo McCarey (also the director and producer of this and the original film version).As mentioned, this IS Cary Grant. I remember reading that Cary Grant once said that he became the character he often portrayed on screen. And this film is the evidence for that statement. He's just fabulous here.Deborah Kerr was a wonderful actress, and at least for me, this is the film I most remember her for.And then there are "the others". The other man in love with Kerr is Richard Denning. He's good, rather sanitized, and you have some sympathy for his character. The other woman in love with Grant is Neva Patterson; tough role to be so unliked by an audience, but an audience never likes a witch (or something that rhymes with that). The other interesting and humorous addition to the supporting actors is Robert Q. Lewis, who takes a humorous tone to his interview with Grant and Denning. Fortunio Bonanova adds a nice touch as an art dealer.There are so many touching scenes in this film. In fact, perhaps the most touching film in any movie -- when Grant and Kerr visit Grant's grandmother in the villa. No matter how many times I watch it, it chokes me up every time. The wonderful actress who excelled so as the grandmother is Cathleen Nesbitt, who, though old, went on to live another 25 years. Her career in show business lasted 80 years! Another touching scene is when Grant encounters Kerr, not knowing that...well, no sense of ruining the scene if you've never seen the film.But the penultimate sentimental scene is the closing. Brilliantly conceived, well written, and the perfect mix of tragic realization and hope. If it doesn't get you, you have a heart of stone. I cry every time. In fact, it is reported that Cary Grant said that whenever he watched the film, he cried at the end! Is there anything wrong with this film. Well, yes there is, although it's a minor point. In several scenes we are brought up to date with Grant's character's history (at least superficially). We never quite get that with Kerr's character. Yes, we eventually find out she was a singer, but beyond that's it's pretty scant, and it could have been accomplished in a matter of just a couple of minutes. And, I'll forgive them for having 2 Black children tap dancing.I wonder. Was this the only film where Cary Grant cried? In sum, this is one of my two favorite romantic films, the other being "Random Harvest" with Ronald Colman. Both are quintessential examples of the genre. This is a classic, and the public knows it. VHS and then DVD sales were unusually high for a 1950s film. And it's no wonder. Grant (along with Spencer Tracy) was the best that Hollywood ever offered. Here, he and Deborah Kerr shine.

kols A staple into adolescence. And then didn't see it again 'till my 40's. It hadn't aged well. Grant seemed wooden throughout the movie, it was filled with a ton of fifties conventions and the whole story dripped of sap.The shock of watching a remembered favorite disintegrating like Dorian Gray was traumatic and, I think, blinding.Still, when it came up again on Encore recently I recorded it for old time's sake and am delighted I did.There is a lot wrong with it, from the awful title song, the montage of TV commentators sitting in little boxes excitedly babbling about the Bon Vivant Nickie Ferrente (Grant as an Italian playboy! Actually the name is Provencal but that's little different, Boyer was much more fitting as a swarthy cad in the 1939 version), and then there's all those cute kids that who were De Rigueur for establishing the moral character of the Heroine, who more or less had to be a teacher. Finally, Kerr's sumptuous wardrobe that would have bankrupted Onassis as well as her posh New York apartment. All on a teacher's salary.But, on my second adult viewing, I recovered all that is right with it and there's a lot, beginning with Kerr's performance.Both Grant's and Kerr's characters are Sophisticated Adults, both given Sophisticated Adult dialog and, when it works between them, it's magic. So much so that the it ignites their chemistry and transforms the movie into a very, very believable love story. This, by itself, overwhelms all of the negatives.Especially all of the scenes between Grant And Kerr as the boat heads towards Villefranche-sur-Mer, with them falling in love and, returning to New York, trying to figure out what to do about it. An Affair to Remember is very much Kerr's movie, she shines in her role and brings Grant up to her level in all of the critical scenes leading to a finale that, despite all of its schmaltz, is both touching and affirming. Grant, in this last scene is very much Kerr's equal.That scene begins with Grant's character, disappointed and little-boy hurt, appearing at Kerr's door, using his Sophisticated Adult dialog to express his hurt with sotto voce irony. As the scene progresses, that pain slowly dissipates as he realizes how much he loves her, replaced by confusion over her failure to appear at their appointed rendezvous until he finally gets it (she was hit by a car crossing to the Empire State Building to met him).That realization, amplified by his recognition of how much of a snooty little boy he'd been coming in, is a minor tour-de-force, understated and convincing.Happy Ending, love wins out and so do I, an old favorite revived.Thinking about it, I think that I originally, as a kid, either didn't notice or ignored all of the stuff I mentioned as negatives, leading to an overwhelming shock when I watched it again as an adult. Kind of like what happened to Grant's character and I'm very pleased that, like him, I was able to overcome that disappointment and recover what was lost.Though I still think all of the negatives I mentioned are negatives, the core love story, led by Kerr and expressed in the scenes focusing on her and Grant, easily rates a ten.