595. Sabrina (1954)

Starring: Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart

Director: Billy Wilder

Running Time: 113 mins

Sabrina is an American film about a rich playboy who becomes interested in the daughter of his chauffeur. However, after complications arise, and his more serious brother comes into the picture, it appears he may not be the one to take her after all.

This is a nice film. It’s not too heavy on the emotional drama, nor too cheesy in terms of the romance, and with some degree of comedy thrown in their, it’s a simple and largely entertaining film to watch, despite a few issues.

What I enjoyed most about this film was its plot. Although I wasn’t massively intrigued by the characters’ personalities themselves, I found a lot of their relationships very interesting, especially how Sabrina’s appearance on the scene becomes some sort of a threat to a multinational cooperation.

And that’s the sort of thing we’re talking about here. An interesting story, and some good relationships, but nothing too heavy-going. Every time this film tries to get a bit serious, something a little lighter comes along (which is in fact mirrored by the contrast of the two brothers), and that makes it a much nicer film to watch.

Also, the simple romance element of the story wasn’t horribly cheesy. There are clichés like Paris and roses etc. thrown in there, but it’s on the whole a sweet and funny case of affairs that never left me wanting to gag as I have in so many romance films.

What I wasn’t particularly impressed by was the consistency of the comedy, and the actors’ performances. The story starts off with quite a few laughs, and maintains that level for the majority of the first half of the film, however by the end, it’s the atmosphere that keeps this film from being dull, and not the jokes, which was a little bit of a disappointment.

I was also surprised by how an all-star cast wasn’t so impressive. Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn, three of the greats of the time, were never particularly convincing. They were all playing their generic sort of character, and that was a little dull, but they never managed to really capture my attention for the story.

Overall, this gets a 7.5, because although the acting and comedy wasn’t great, it was a light, nice and fun film to watch.