Sydney Pollack: Sabrina
Coming out in the same year as the Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin
fairy tale The American President,
Sydney Pollack released his own fairy tale, Sabrina,
a remake of the Billy Wilder classic starring Humphrey Bogart, William Holden,
and Audrey Hepburn. Reiner and Pollack’s sought to make films that stood out as
a stark contrast in an era of cynicism and conglomerates; they are escapist
films about characters that escape themselves into fantasy worlds. They are
both great examples of films that elicit the kind of response where one waxes nostalgic about how, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to." But I’m here to talk
about Sabrina, and to watch Sabrina is
to be absorbed by a film where time simply melts away. To watch Sabrina is also to watch a film where we
understand that everything depends upon the performances. The story – an ugly
duckling fairy tale with a “once upon a time…” opening narration – is familiar,
the results of the story are definitely familiar, and the tone – and how Pollack
will visually convey that tone – is also familiar to anyone that’s either seen
the original Sabrina, seen a Sydney
Pollack movie, or knows of Pollack’s love for ‘40s/’50s cinema. It’s a touch on
the long side at 126 minutes, and even though the film feels like its spinning
its wheels in the third act, I’m never bored by the film because I just love
spending time with these characters and the extravagant milieu they inhabit. It
reminds me of Tootsie in that it’s
pure cinematic comfort food.
Based on the 1954 Billy Wilder film – which was based on the
play by Samuel Taylor – Sabrina concerns
itself with Larrabee family. Brothers Linus (Harrison Ford) and David (Greg
Kinnear in his first major role) run the family business while mother Maude
(Nancy Marchand) merely makes appearances and throws parties, leaving the
day-to-day operations to Linus. David loves the lifestyle but not the work (he doesn’t
take it seriously and has never stepped foot in his office), and if I were to
tell you that he was a playboy type that had a new girlfriend every week, meets
Elizabeth Tyson (Lauren Holley) whom he loves and wants to marry, and then
falls out of love with her later in the film, would you be surprised? Would you
be surprised if I told you that the woman he is planning to marry is the
daughter of the family that Linus is trying to merge with (and thus when David’s
love wears off it affects the merger, making it impossible for him to actually
not follow through with the wedding) and that Linus must do everything he can
to keep the merger going forward despite his brother’s obvious unhappiness?
No, the narrative and how it plays out is of little to no
use to us here. We know how this story goes. We know that Sabrina (Julia Ormond
in a performance that elicited a, “what ever happened to her” while I re-watched
this the other night), the daughter of the family chauffeur, who adores David –
often from the vantage point of a tree outside the cottage that she and her
father live – and the lavish lifestyle of the Larrabee’s will go off to Paris,
learn about life, mature, and come back with a makeover that transforms her from
naïve girl to beautiful woman. We also know that everyone will recognize Sabrina
except David, but when he does recognize her, he will, of course, fall in love with
her, jeopardizing his engagement to Elizabeth. Sabrina naturally falls for all
of David’s schemes that she used to giggle at from her tree; however, this
jeopardizes the giant merger between the Larrabee’s and the Tyson’s (Richard
Crenna plays Elizabeth’s father) and draws the ire of Linus and Maude. After an
unfortunate accident involving some champagne flutes, David is incapacitated
for a few days, which opens the door for Linus to hatch a plan to divert Sabrina’s
attention from David onto him so that David can’t screw up the merger.
Again, we know where this is all going: Linus and Sabrina
share some moments together on the beach and over Mongolian food; despite his
efforts being rooted in a plan to fool Sabrina, Linus eventually falls in love
with her because of what she awakens in him; Sabrina falls in love with Linus
but still is infatuated with the fantasy that David represents; Linus’ plan is
foiled because he can’t handle what it does to Sabrina, but also because of
Sabrina’s surprisingly grown-up reaction to finding out about Linus’ plan; and
David saves the day by becoming responsible for once, completing the merger,
and allowing his brother to be happy for the first time in his life. It’s all
very charming and sweet.
In Roger Ebert’s review of the film, he states that with a
film like Sabrina, “Everything depends
on the casting[…] In a movie like this, skill and talent can take you only so
far, and then the camera is simply sitting there and regarding you, and you had
better be regardable, or the cause is lost.” I tend to agree with this
sentiment (we can actually apply it to a lot of Pollack’s films) because this
is so much what those films of the ‘40s/’50s that Pollack revered so much are
about: watching big stars look pretty, say funny things, and fall in love,
enjoying ourselves during the process. This is what Sabrina does so well. Harrison Ford is perfect as Linus – a performance
that marks one of the last times Ford still looked the sure-fire 100 million
dollar leading man (he wouldn’t be the haggard Harrison Ford until ’99 when he re-teamed
with Pollack for Random Hearts). Greg
Kinnear in his first big role (he also starred in the much-less enjoyable,
downright awful Dear God the same
year) is charming as David; Pollack once again shows his knack for seeing
something in an actor and eliciting the best performance possible from them.
The supporting cast – the aforementioned Crenna and Marchand, but also Angie
Dickinson, John Wood, Fanny Adant, and the great character actress Dana Ivey – is
fantastic here, as well.
But the film’s successes hinge entirely upon our love of
Sabrina. And she is played by relative newcomer at the time Julia Ormond (she
had just starred in Legends of the Fall and
First Knight). It’s easy to see why Pollack
would cast her: she plays the loveable Duckling (and does a good job, despite
how beautiful she is, of looking not like a movie star prior to her
transformation post-Paris) well and holds her own in a comparison to Hepburn
even if Pollack knows along with the rest of us watching that trying to compare
someone to Audrey Hepburn is futile. Hiding behind long, curled hair and big
glasses, the make-up and costume people do a decent enough job of making Ormond
look like a naïve girl in awe of this foreign world that is right next door to
her. And when she comes back from Paris, she is striking in her beauty – her smile,
still in awe of the Larrabee lifestyle, is infectious – and is appropriately
compared to a lovely breeze that has come in and instilled life within David,
charming him; she charmed me, too. Ormond’s performance is always the right
balance of being in awe of the Larrabee lifestyle yet still grounded by her
experiences in Paris. Obviously her transformation from innocent girl to
experienced woman isn’t as striking as Hepburn’s, but then again you’ll notice
that I’ve stayed away from comparisons between the two films (and casts)
because…well, because that’s just stupid to compare anything to Billy Wilder. So yeah, Julia Ormond: I loved her in
this performance and give major kudos to Pollack for casting her (the other
finalist for the role was Juliette Binoche) when I’m sure the studios wanted a
much bigger star (in fact, Pollack insisted on casting a “name” actress).
Like Sabrina, we too fawn over the extravagance that fills
every frame as Pollack’s camera lovingly lingers over the glitz and glamor of
the Larrabee parties. So, in addition to the actors really shining, Brian Morris' production design as big a star. You feel as
though you are walking through that archway into the Larrabee party. It’s so
well defined and executed that it’s one of the reasons why I don’t begrudge
Pollack for letting his camera linger a little too long on certain scenes. Who
can blame him? We believe Sabrina’s reactions – her naiveté – because we too
are stunned by the night parties with big band and fireworks, the solarium, the
plane rides, the mini-vacation to Martha’s Vineyard…it’s all alluring without
being too distracting from the personal story that’s unfolding. The environment
is beautiful to look at, and I’m glad he lets his camera just kind of mosey its
way through the party because I was absolutely drinking all of it in and
enjoying every minute of it.
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