While I do not think this movie is good enough to make the IMDb top 250, it still is an excellent movie that is a lot of fun. I think some of the reason it is rated highly is because there seems to be an "Audrey Hepburn cult"---a devoted group of people who see her as the greatest actress that ever lived and her movies as masterpieces. While I would admit she was a heck of an actress, I just don't think BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, ROMAN HOLIDAY or CHARADE are great--just very good and entertaining.
The film automatically is guaranteed to be very good just because of its pairing of Hepburn and Cary Grant. Both are such professional and likable actors that it's no surprise at all that the movie succeeds. And while Cary is significantly older than his co-star, this is handled pretty well in the movie. The older Cary isn't as sure of himself or tough as he once was and he even makes a few remarks about his advancing age. This is a very graceful way of making the pairing actually work. About the only aspect of the pairing I didn't care for was how many times Cary turned out to be someone else. Considering how often he lied to Audrey, it didn't make much sense for her STILL to fall in love with him. This does prevent the movie from scoring a higher rating from me, but it is a relatively small quibble since the rest of the film works so well.
The supporting cast is exceptional--particularly George Kennedy as the hot-head. The writing decent and direction superb. In particular, the exceptional camera-work result and music resulted in a wonderful romantic mood and the director worked with his crew to ensure this. Also I was impressed by the scenes where the two would-be lovers were on the barge having a romantic dinner. I noticed that they actually worked with the sound to make it sound as if the barge was actually going under the bridges--with Grant's and Hepburn's voices echoing realistically to this. That's an excellent touch that many directors would NOT have included. It was obvious that this was a work of love.
So fans of the two stars as well as fans of romance should enjoy this film very much. About the only ones who might not like CHARADE are action-loving teens and kids who might just think the whole thing is "icky" and can't understand why Ms. Hepburn would fall for "that old guy"--if only they knew and understood!
The film automatically is guaranteed to be very good just because of its pairing of Hepburn and Cary Grant. Both are such professional and likable actors that it's no surprise at all that the movie succeeds. And while Cary is significantly older than his co-star, this is handled pretty well in the movie. The older Cary isn't as sure of himself or tough as he once was and he even makes a few remarks about his advancing age. This is a very graceful way of making the pairing actually work. About the only aspect of the pairing I didn't care for was how many times Cary turned out to be someone else. Considering how often he lied to Audrey, it didn't make much sense for her STILL to fall in love with him. This does prevent the movie from scoring a higher rating from me, but it is a relatively small quibble since the rest of the film works so well.
The supporting cast is exceptional--particularly George Kennedy as the hot-head. The writing decent and direction superb. In particular, the exceptional camera-work result and music resulted in a wonderful romantic mood and the director worked with his crew to ensure this. Also I was impressed by the scenes where the two would-be lovers were on the barge having a romantic dinner. I noticed that they actually worked with the sound to make it sound as if the barge was actually going under the bridges--with Grant's and Hepburn's voices echoing realistically to this. That's an excellent touch that many directors would NOT have included. It was obvious that this was a work of love.
So fans of the two stars as well as fans of romance should enjoy this film very much. About the only ones who might not like CHARADE are action-loving teens and kids who might just think the whole thing is "icky" and can't understand why Ms. Hepburn would fall for "that old guy"--if only they knew and understood!