An Affair to Remember created in 1957 tells the unbelievable story of the greatest affair to ever live. Nickie Ferrante, is a worldwide womanizer while Terry McKay is the average Judy. Both are spoken for but that doesn’t seem to get in the way of their budding romance.
Perfect for the Valentine’s season, An Affair to Remember is great for the single ladies night in, or the end of a date for the couples out there. The movie is about two people cheating on their loved ones. Starting off as a simple return of a cigarette case, Terry and Nickie slowly grow fonder and fonder of each other. Set on the high seas of the Mediterranean, the two of them try as hard as they can to ignore the spark between them but even the passengers on the cruise notice them and do NOT ignore it.
For the millennials out there is a scene in An Affair to Remember that was recreated in the popular TV Show Gossip Girl. In An Affair to Remember there is a beautiful scene where Nickie and Terry are supposed to meet each other on the top of the empire state building, to run off and get married. Back in Gossip Girl Chuck tells Blair to meet him at the top of the empire state building so he knows she loves him. An Affair to Remember truly has been reused and recreate in many different lights. In the show Sex and the City Samantha rents An Affair to Remember and has a girls night in with her best friends and a bottle of red.
For me I hate, “lovie-dovie” movies. Never been much of a fan of the whole Valentine’s Day movies, but this movie is honestly one of my favorites. Terry, played by Deborah Kerr, is a snappy young women with a singing voice that gave me goosebumps. She is also very sarcastic for the time period and breaks the glass with her attitude and spunk. Considering that the movie was created in 1957, modern day viewers wouldn’t expect as much sass from a classy dignified lady of the 50’s.
Hollywood hotshot, Cary Grant, plays Nickie/ Nicoló Ferrante. Nickie as his grandmother says has a natural talent for everything, a jack of all traits if you will. His true talent is for painting, “the artist in him paints but the critic in him destroys.” There could have been more to this part. Yes, Nickie is supposed to play the hard to get suavementé type but he needs more to be a person. All the viewer really knows is that he is an attractive older man who cheats on his fiancé a lot.
Cary Grant was a great choice for the role but for the character to be better he needed to have a history away from just cheating.
The one scene in particular that made me swoon was Terry singing Our Love Affair, originally sung by Judy Garland. Terry said before she met her boyfriend that she was a singer at a nightclub in Boston. You kind of forget that tidbit until she starts to sing. Your heart melts and the chills run down your body. I had a thousand goosebumps after watching that scene. Terry (Deborah Kerr) sings like an angel, it’s that classic singing that you’re just don’t her nowadays. It’s a nice change of pace.
Overall An Affair to Remember is an amazing movie. I would give the film an A+ or a five out of five stars, with its energetic dialogue, fun story line, and dramatic ending. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an 87% and IMDb 7.6/10. Although it does send a bad message of cheating, it’s a wonderful story about the magnetizing love story between two unexpected characters.
