Review of Charade

I prefer to think of Charade as more of a light-hearted suspense movie more concerned with romance than a hard nosed thriller. Though the film can be classified as such, the screenplay takes more time to work on the relationship between the two main characters than the average thriller does. And of course it doesn't hurt to have Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, two wonderfully charismatic actors, as your leads. Very well written dialogue for the characters only increases the enjoyment. The film wisely focuses on them and leaves the thrills to the background. Not to say that stuff isn't well written. The idea isn't terribly enthralling, but it's executed with enough twists and turns to keep you interested, though if you're anything like me you'll see the surprises coming a mile off. That was probably the weak point of the film. It was simply too predictable. And though I loved the two main characters and I'm glad the film focused on them, I would have like to have seem just a bit more time allotted to the three bad guys. A little more sculpturing could have made them more effect heels than they were, not that they were bad.

Thanks to Grant and Hepburn, and a devotion by the screenwriters to make their characters great, the film is fun to watch. The suspense is there, but not amazingly thrilling.

7.5/10

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