Letterboxd — Your life in film

Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds who live on the frontier during the American Revolution. Rampaging Indians are constantly burning down their neighbours' houses and, yeah, basically this movie has not aged well. Rah rah American patriotism (a slave raises the Stars and Stripes at the end while the community's one Native American ally salutes it) plus lots of racist Native American stereotypes, not to mention the very creepy scene where Fonda's character implies that he's going to beat his wife later and then smiles at her like it's the most normal thing in the world. Fun times.

I meant to see this when it came out in theatres but never got to it. The Guilt Trip is another movie like Bridesmaids and The 40 Year Old Virgin which is billed as a hilarious comedy but is actually rather more sentimental than the ads might lead one to think. Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen have great chemistry and make a believable mother-son team. Streisand is charming as always, Rogen is geeky but likable as always. I laughed out loud at parts of this film and was genuinely moved by some of the more emotional moments. Very enjoyable.

I watched this on a cross-country plane trip: it helped me on my quest to see all the Best Picture Oscar nominees. On that subject, I can't believe this was really nominated for Best Picture the same year as The Deer Hunter. There are some cute moments in the film, but it is essentially fluff.

Hollywood apparently really loves this story given that Here Comes Mr. Jordan, of which Heaven Can Wait is a remake, was also nominated for Best Picture.

A jealous husband disguises himself as a Russian prince to test his wife's loyalty. The husband and wife are both actors and very theatrical people; he in particular has a comically big ego, but in a charming way. It's a cute story, though the ending is not hard to predict.

Bette Davis plays a young heiress who's been courted by a bunch of obnoxious European suitors. She meets American reporter George Brent and convinces him to marry her so the others will back off. Of course, Davis and Brent fall in love and have to overcome the obstacles keeping them apart. This is a silly comedy with a contrived plot and an uncomfortable by modern standards gag involving domestic violence. Not bad but not great.

Like Stella Dallas and several other "women's pictures" from this era, That Certain Woman is about a young woman who sacrifices herself for her child. The leads are the always engaging Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, so this film is certainly watchable despite being somewhat cheesy and melodramatic.

I wrote a longer review of this for my blog. In sum: I found the movie's themes very interesting and enjoyed parts of it a lot, but as a whole it was somehow lacking. A good movie but not a great one.