Sabrina ** (1995, Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear) – Classic Movie Review 933

Director Sydney Pollack’s 1995 romance is a totally turgid remake of Billy Wilder’s none-too-sparkling original based on a creaky old play Sabrina Fair by Samuel Taylor.

In this uneasy romantic comedy, Long Island playboy David Larrabee (Greg Kinnear) and his business-obsessed brother Linus (Harrison Ford) chase their chauffeur’s lovely daughter Sabrina Fairchild (Julia Ormond). The sparkle’s not present in the outmoded story, dialogue, pace or performances.

Ford, cast against type, seems ill at ease, looking glum and old in a haircut-from-hell, while a beautiful but forlorn Ormond never gives the idea that she’s the lady-of-a-lifetime. And she certainly can’t obliterate the memory of Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 version, with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden.

Greg Kinnear shows some considerable charm as Ford’s ne’er-do-well younger brother and Nancy Marchand adds some much-needed acid and grit as the men’s bitchy mom. A very good cast includes John Wood, Richard Crenna, Angie Dickinson, Lauren Holly, Dana Ivey, Miriam Colon, Elizabeth Franz, Fanny Ardant, Valérie Lemercier, Patrick Bruel, Becky Ann Baker, Paul Giamatti, John C Vennema, Gregory Chase and Margo Martindale. This all helps.

So does Pollack, who directs with polish and conviction. Well, at least he believes in it.

This, and the Pollack-Ford companion piece, Random Hearts (1999), were bad career moves for Ford. They helped tarnished Ford’s box-office allure and started to send his star into the descendant.

Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack died on 26 May 2008 at the age of 73 after a battle with cancer.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 933

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