Autumn in New York ** (2000, Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Elaine Stritch) – Classic Movie Review 1572

Richard Gere stars as cynical ageing playboy and restaurant owner Will Keane, who embarks on a casual fling with the cute and much younger Charlotte Fielding (Winona Ryder). But his feelings change when he finds she is terminally ill and he really falls for her.

Director Joan Chen’s plush, well-acted but maudlin old-style 2000 romantic melodrama is fair enough but way out of its time, giving the strong impression that they might have made – much better and with more conviction – in the 1940s.

Gere is pretty good, while Elaine Stritch’s typically acid little turn as old Dolly runs like a breath of fresh air through the fetid little thing. It’s good that it takes itself so seriously, but Allison Burnett’s screenplay is stodgy and oh so boring.

Anthony LaPaglia, Vera Farmiga, J K Simmons, Mary Beth Hurt, Sherry Stringfield, Jill Hennessy and Sam Trammell are also in the good cast, giving their usual reliable turns.

Broadway great Elaine Stritch passed away on July 17 2014, aged 89.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1572

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