Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A Brilliant Conflict

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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.

Okay, so I don't hate this movie. However, it does pale in comparison to the 1930s version with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. Heck, in even the 1990s remake with Annette Benning and Warren Beatty the two leads have better chemistry. In "Sleepless in Seattle", which features the film, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have more chemistry in their limited screen time together.For me, Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant just don't have that much on screen chemistry, which is odd considering this film's reputation as one of the greatest on screen romances. Grant even had more chemistry with Katherine Hepburn and Grace Kelly (who by the way, I cannot stand as an actress!) Grant plays pretty much the same character he played in most of his movies- a wealthy, charming, suave and sophisticated playboy. Although he was clearly getting on in years by the time this film was made, he still had the same charisma he always did.To me, Kerr was a lovely lady but she pretty much always played one-dimensional English Rose type characters. Sort of like Grant, she seemed to play the same kind of role in every film like Grant did. Here, Kerr plays a singer. Hmm... yet, she had to be dubbed here just like in "The King & I." Odd that back in the day, producers would cast an actor who couldn't sing to play a singer. Seems like it would have been more cost-effective to just cast an actor who could actually sing in a film that required singing. But I digress...Anyway, several things about this film bother me. One is how ungrateful Kerr's character is to her long-suffering boyfriend, Ken, who does so much for her throughout the film, including support her both emotionally and financially. I'm sure I will have people disagree with me, but in my opinion, she should have picked him at the end of the film, but of course (MAJOR SPOILER HERE) she's going to pick Cary Grant because, well, he's Cary Grant. The scenes with the kids singing were also rather annoying, and kind of pointless.Anyway, I wouldn't tell anyone not to see this film since again it is not terrible or anything. However, I would advise you to see the Charles Boyer/Irene Dunne version first.

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.

Deborah Kerr is horrible in this picture. She has no emotion at all for Cary Grant. For being considered a great actress I cant see it at all in this picture. I don't know why they put her next to Cary, she is not matched with him in the least. No sex appeal, no love there at all. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's version is so much better. Love Affair, they show love for each other, of course it shows, they are together in real life too. All kinds of sex a peel going on between them and it shows on screen. They are so much better. I am glad Warren Beatty made this version or we would be stuck with the horrible lasting picture with Deborah Kerr. I don't understand where the love for Deborah is, since she wasn't even good in From here to Eternity.