Tracy Winters Typical, predictable, seen-it-all-before story about a guy who gets involved with a terminally-ill girl.Richard Gere is supposed to be Mr. Wonderful in this "Love Story" rip-off with Winona Ryder as the sick chick. Many ideas from the latter movie are regurgitated here including the ice rink and hospital deathbed scenes.Things stay safe and sterile from the first hour of 'charming' date sequences, like the moment when a giggling Winona puts on one of the 'hats' she made (it looks like a bent-up coat hanger), all the way to the end of this Joan Chen-directed date flick when Winnie faints for the twentieth time, sparking Dick to once again exclaim another exasperated "Jeeeez!".Lame. Stick with "Love Story" (1970).

Python Hyena Autumn in New York (2000): Dir: Joan Chen / Cast: Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Elaine Stritch, Anthony LaPaglia, Vera Farmiga: Autumn represents death and Winona Ryder is the subject. She plays a young virgin with a complicated illness celebrating her birthday in the restaurant of a womanizer played by Richard Gere. Their first phone conversation consists of Gere telling Ryder to fashion a hat for his date, which just happens to be her. They get involved despite their age difference then he grows to really care about her and searches drastically for a surgeon to operate on her. Perhaps he should have searched for a screenwriter to render this depressing exercise a little easier to intake. Hardly uplifting and quite predictable with Ryder's fate being quite obvious. Director Joan Chen allows beautiful shots of New York. Gere succeeds as a man struggling to mend his brokenness by mending another. Ryder as a virgin just doesn't sell. What's worse is that she and Gere lack chemistry. Elaine Stritch as Ryder's grandmother does her best with a standard role. Anthony LaPaglia appears briefly as a surgeon. Vera Farmiga appears in a useless subplot as Gere's daughter whom he has actually never met. The whole movie needs a surgeon beginning with the screenplay. Insincere tear jerker disguised as a meaningful drama where the screenplay is as dead as autumn. Score: 3 ½ / 10

SnoopyStyle Will Keane (Richard Gere) is a womanizing restaurateur on the cover of a magazine. Charlotte Fielding (Winona Ryder) has her 22th birthday party at his restaurant. She makes weird little hats. Her grandmother (Elaine Stritch) knows him as an old friend of her mom. He starts flirting with her and maneuvers her to a date. After their first night together, he tells her that he can offer her nothing, and she tells him that she has a terminal heart tumor. Meanwhile there is a mystery woman Lisa Tyler (Vera Farmiga) around.There is a high ick factor especially since the movie hints at him and her mother having a thing in the past. She's playing a giggly little girl. She's literally giggling about him dancing with her mother. He's the weaselly Don Juan type. She's so young that she can't see that he was just trying to seduce her that first time around. She's so clueless that she's shocked by her mother's past with him. It's not romantic. It's just sleazy. Next to Gere, Winona Ryder is like a fawning teenager. And why do they have to keep talking about her mother? I understand that there is a May to December romance that gets turned upside down. It's not as poetic as the movie supposes. The chemistry is all wrong. If she doesn't start off as terminal, then it might make the movie more poetic. The dialog is fairly weak and there is limited tension in the story. I don't know what drives the movie if we rule out happily ever after right off the bat.

Amy Adler Will (Richard Gere) is a New York City restaurateur and ladies man, in his middle forties. His life's motto is definitely love 'em and leave 'em and have fun in between. So, when he meets Charlotte (Winona Ryder), a beautiful young lady half his age, he is surprised at how smitten he is with her. Wanting to make a connection, he hires her to make a hat for his date to a charity function. When she shows up at his apartment on the evening of the affair, he informs her that his date is sick. Would she, Charlotte, take her place? She agrees and they have a lovely evening together, one that lasts all night. Love is in the air, all right. But, Charlotte confides in Will that she has a dire medical condition, one that is threatening her life. What will their future hold? This is really a nice film for those who like to sigh and cry over a set of star-crossed lovers. Gere is great as the aging lothario and Ryder positively enchanting as the spunky and lovely young lady in his life. The rest of the cast members, including Anthony LaPaglia, Sherry Stringfield, and Elaine Stritch, are great. Then, too, the film is replete with lovely costumes, sets and scenery, making for a very beautiful watch. If you have a hankering for romances, even and especially ones that elicit tears, you should get this film without delay. On an autumn evening, with a fire blazing and mugs of hot chocolate on hand, you will feel very satisfied when the story is spent.