Speculation

An Affair to Remember is a movie directed by Leo McCarey in 1957. It is a classic romance aboard a ship where two people, played by Kary Grant and Deborah Kerr, that are both attached to other people, fall in love. The man is a well known bachelor that plays the field, and before he got on the ship, he announced that he was engaged. It was all over the news and he was getting publicity that I can’t say he discouraged. Kerr, playing an ex- nightclub singer was aboard the boat traveling for leisure. She tried to escape the cameras following him, but he didn’t care. Once the boat docked, the two made a promise to get their lives together and meet on the top of the empire state building in six months. Kerr was on her way to meet him and got in a tragic accident that prevented them from reuniting. Grant eventually found his love and they ended up together. You almost thought the movie was going to end without Kerr confessing her accident because of pride, but he figures it out.
Unlike the original, the woman in Love Affair, played by Annette Bening, is announced to be married on the news in the beginning. More like today, Bening and her mate, played by Warren Beatty, are equally successful. Instead of the woman being the “lucky” one to snag the most eligible bachelor, it was asked “who’s with her”? It was, however, hinted that like the original, he was still a lady’s man when his watch was handed to him flirtatiously by woman he worked with. Instead of starting on a boat, the movie began on plane. Instead of a week together, a few days. Instead of 6 months until they meet again, 3 months. All this represents how things are fast-paced these days. Trips are faster, love blossoms faster, and the only thing that is slower is our patience- especially as an audience. Their contact is more quickly begun by a near crash. They only ended up on a boat to get to a vacation place since the plane was forced to land on an island. Not as much was left to imagination. In the original, the notes each received from their lovers ashore weren’t revealed as to what they said, in the remake they were. The reinventions in the remake weren’t necessary or creative.
In the original, they agree to meet on to of the Empire State Building, and a part of the agreement was that if one wasn’t there it was for a really important urgent reason. In the remake, they agreed the same, but in the agreement they said if one person didn’t show, there would be “no pestering” or phone calls. The love was deeper and more believable in the original. They didn’t hint at the fact that their love may fail, and I guess today it is more likely that meeting someone like that is a mere fantasy that will dissolve. Still, it took away from the moment.
I already knew if the original was good enough, I wouldn’t like the remake. Sure enough the remake of An Affair to Remember was repelling. Actually, I couldn’t even find any room to enjoy it. I can watch daytime trash TV when I am bored, but this wasn’t even that engaging. Love Affair did not do a good job reinventing the romance that made the original so alluring and sensual. The way the the romantic dramas were made back then- with every word slowly dripping off the lover’s lips, every touch lingering, and every gaze sincere and unrushed. I just don’t think you can get as intense of a connection when trying to remake something and portray it through the ways of today, while trying to hold onto the same concept. Not quite enough twist was given to the remake, and it was almost stuck between the original and somewhere else. The vacuous reinvention of scenes tried to keep the same emotion by keeping same exact actions as a tribute to the original. The remake was too afraid to approach new representations.
Grant and Kerr gave stellar performances, and the mystery of his pursuit for her was wanted. It left me eager to watch as each scene ended with the thought of them getting together. The deliberate imperceptible moves the characters gave was dreamy. It added effect to maybe how love once was before this fast paced world existed. Courting is no longer a game, but a single play. And maybe the speed of things today has taken the magic out of people trusting in taking their time with love?
Love Affair tried to cater to the new audience, taking into account that times are different. The roles of men and women are different. Women aren’t just educated to keep their spouse interested, but to have a career. Unfortunately the rushed attitudes of both characters didn’t give me chance to like them. Instead of the long silences in the original, the remake filled each moment with awkward banter that didn’t quite make it. I rest my case in saying the in order to remake a film, the most important criteria is that it can stand up against the original. This one can’t even stand alone.