Irene Dunne, Love Affair

as TERRY MCKAY

Love Affair is said to be Irene Dunne's favorite film. I found out this factoid after having watched it, and I'm rather perplexed as to why she liked it so much. Perhaps it's because the movie itself is sweet like a Hershey's kiss, but I personally found it to be a very ordinary and often times boring romantic drama. Love Affair is not nearly as memorable as The Awful Truth or even Cimarron for that matter (though the latter is memorable for all the wrong reasons). Many consider that it's not even the most memorable adaptation of its own story (re: An Affair to Remember). Performance wise, while there were parts of Dunne's performance to appreciate, I can't say that I was enthralled by her.

For me, I felt that this was another case of a performance that is serviceable but not necessarily anything special. I've read thoughts on her work here and there on the internet that seem to praise a performance seen as restrained and natural...and while I can agree that bits and pieces of the performance definitely have a more organic air about it, I was rather bored by Dunne for much of the film. There are some moments that I did like--she can radiate such a glowing light such as in the scene in which she tells a joke and laughs in front of Charles Boyer and Maria Ouspenskaya, and she is quite devastating in the hospital bed scene--but outside of that I failed to really find anything there to be impressed by. I suppose it doesn't help that I'm not much of a Dunne fan to begin with. Her offbeat Dunne-y delight style of acting, filled with its little ooh and hmm mannerisms, doesn't really work to her benefit in regards to Love Affair's slow pacing and romanticized overtones...at least not as much as it did in The Awful Truth. I feel that Dunne's performance in the latter works as well as it does because her acting meshes perfectly with Truth's quirkier screwball eccentricities. In my opinion, a film with overwrought contrivances calls for an actor with a passionate and fiery demeanor to complement the silliness of what is going on in the story; that's not to say that Dunne has no passion per se, but she is an actress who tends to underplay, and while that might be perfect for cinephiles who favor restraint and naturalism in their actors, it doesn't do anything for me...at least not here. Dunne sort of falls flat at times and sort of muffles the melodrama of the picture, and she left me thinking that someone else could have done all of that to a better effect. But I suppose it simply comes down to a matter of taste: Dunne's definitely not bad, she's actually great at times...and I see where others may be taken by her, but as an overall piece I just don't think there was enough there to make it a standout or memorable performance.