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Today, 13 October 2008

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Soppy and clichéd 'Autumn in New York' is a "Love Story"-style romantic melodrama that uses every trick in the Hollywood handbook to squeeze a tear from movie-goers.

Richard Gere plays Will Keane, a 48-year-old womanising celebrity restauranteur with his picture on the cover of New York magazine. Winona Ryder is Charlotte Fielding, a quirky 22-year-old Emily Dickinson-quoting hat designer with a tumour that's slowly destroying her heart.

While schmoozing at his restaurant one evening, Will encounters Charlotte at a dinner party. Will, a notorious love 'em and leave 'em playboy, sets his sights on Charlotte, hiring her to construct a hat for a phantom date. When she shows up with her pipe-cleaner creation, he claims that he was stood up and asks her to try on the dress intended for his date. Miracle of miracles, the dress fits perfectly, and the pair head out for a magical Manhattan dream date. Charlotte, by the way, does not wear the pipe cleaner hat.

As if things weren't complicated enough, what with his age and her fatal illness, Will had a childhood romance with Charlotte's late mother. But that was 30 years ago, recalls Charlotte's acerbic grandmother, round about the time he knocked up her mother's tennis partner. Despite Will's dodgy past, illegitimate daughter and his long list of conquests, Charlotte puts her faith in his enduring love.

The story directly addresses the dreamy couples' massive 30-year age gap. Unfortunately, the filmmakers beat the subject to death. One particularly amusing exchange has Will asking, "You think I'm too old?" and Charlotte responding, "I collect antiques".

Unfortunately, their brief romance between May and December is as far-fetched as it is unsavoury. Regardless of their age difference, Richard Gere and Winona Ryder are never credible as a couple.

Writer Allison Burnett loads the script with cheesy, embarrassing or simply awkward lines. Besides gratuitously quoting poetry to each other while walking among golden leaves in Central Park (and, of course, on her death bed), the actors are forced to deliver such laughable lines as: "Love is not a race", "You don't dance, you float" and other whoppers no sensible girl would buy for a second.

To be fair, 'Autumn in New York' has a few good points. There's lots of divine scenic footage of New York City, thanks to 'Farewell My Concubine' cinematographer Changwei Gu. In fact, director Joan Chen (who directed 'Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl') and Gu lavish such elegance on the visuals that you're almost willing to forgive the clichéd falling leaves and rain-swept break-ups.

Veteran actor Elaine Stritch creates the story's most engaging character in Dolly, Charlotte's grandmother, a vinegary, weathered alcoholic whose depth provides a neat contrast to Will's superficiality.

'Autumn in New York' is a little like a Hallmark Valentine card - romantic, soppy and awfully clichéd.