AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

I don’t like Sleepless in Seattle. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like romcoms, chick flicks, or love stories. That’s not the issue at all. I simply don’t like Sleepless in Seattle and never did. I don’t think it is a good movie and I find the character of Annie Reed to be a vexatious ninny, and quite frankly, a little creepy. Because of this, I’ve never really had much of an ambition to see An Affair to Remember, a movie that is referenced and quoted ad nauseam throughout Sleepless in Seattle.

That being said, An Affair to Remember ended up on my 2023 film journey through recommendation. And I must admit that I’m glad that it did! Sure, it’s a bit saccharin and astoundingly chaste, but damn, the acting is magnificent. The chemistry between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is phenomenal (Grant took the role just so he could act with Kerr again). Both actors are at the top of their game.

Cary Grant plays completely against type in this film. I jest! He plays a debonaire bachelor (what else?!) named Nickie Ferrante. Nickie has decided to retire his lothario-ways and settle down with a rich heiress. Kerr plays Terry McCay, a nightclub singer who, like Nickie, has decided to accept an offer of marriage (and domesticity) from a well-to-do suitor. Nickie and Terry meet by chance when they are both traveling alone aboard an ocean liner en route from Europe to the United States. The duo shares some witty repartee and discover they enjoy each other’s company. Terry eventually joins Nickie as he visits his grandmother when the ship anchors near her home in the Mediterranean (this extended scene was by far my favorite). The trip reaches its conclusion, and Terry and Nickie realize that they have fallen in love. They depart the ship after making a pact that they shall meet each other at the top of the Empire State Building in six months if their current relationships don’t work and their love for each other doesn’t subside.

Tragedy prevents the two from meeting, and their lives go on, each of them thinking they are doing what is best for the other by moving on with their lives apart. At this point, the film becomes quite cloying and engages in full-on melodrama. The ending is predictable, but one is too vested at this point to not see it through! The final scene is a full-out onslaught of wrap-it-up schmaltz, but it’s ultimately still a much more rewarding experience than having to see a single moment of Sleepless in Seattle!