For It Is Man's Number: david rayfiel

Showing posts with label david rayfiel. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 February 2026

Netflix And Chill: Sabrina (1995)

Although I like Harrison Ford, and have always been a big fan of his most iconic roles, I have overlooked many of his performances in "lesser"movies that I am only now keen to check out. This is all due to getting to see a bit more of Ford offscreen, and enjoying the droll and sardonic nature he often deploys in interviews. Age has allowed him to settle into the persona of an outright curmudgeon, but that has always seemed to be his preferred position.

Sabrina, a remake of a Billy Wilder-Audrey Hepburn-Humphrey Bogart film I am not familiar with, is the tale of a chauffeur's daughter (the titular Sabrina, played here by Julia Ormond) who has spent her life in love with the young playboy (David, played by Greg Kinnear) of the rich family that her father works for. Aiming to stay away from him when she is older, Sabrina starts life anew in Paris, but she is drawn back to David when she hears that he is finally looking to settle down and get married. His union with Elizabeth Tyson (Lauren Holly) will work in the favour of his older brother (Linus, played by Ford), who is looking to put together a very attractive merger package with Elizabeth's parents. As it quickly becomes clear that Sabrina may throw a spanner in the works, Linus sets out to distract her. Which is when he inevitably starts falling for her.

Written by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel, who I assume just had to tweak the source material to match their stars and the shiny modern world of the mid-90s, Sabrina is lightweight and surprisingly enjoyable throughout, mainly thanks to the casting. It's all a bit odd during the opening scenes, up until Sabrina returns and reconnects with a very impressed David, but things soon settle into a pleasing narrative that shows the ice cold and business-minded Linus being thawed out and reminded of how much more fun he could be having with all of his money and resources.

Director Sydney Pollack has always been reliable, if not always the very best choice for most of the films that he helmed, but he always had a particular knack for working with enjoyably varied casts orbiting one or two big names, which is why he does so well here. Ford may be the star, but Kinnear also gets to dazzle, and Ormond is allowed to give the kind of performance that feels like it's announcing her as a new shining star in the constellation of great leading ladies.

Ford gives the kind of performance I was hoping for here, very gruff and matter-of-fact while others act emotionally around him, and his ever-present charisma make the third act easy to buy into when people start to suspect that he and Sabrina have a connection. Ormond manages to delight and enchant without ever being turned into a complete "manic pixie dream girl"stereotype. She's just someone who was once an outsider, supported by a loving father to be able to do whatever she truly wanted to do with her life. Kinnear is sidelined for a lot of the runtime, but his main scenes, whether sitting down on some champagne glasses or reasserting his place in the family business, are highlights. Holly does well enough in her role, Richard Crenna and Angie Dickinson are a good choice to play her parents, Nancy Marchand is the mother of both David and Linus, and plays her part well, and John Wood, playing Sabrina's father, tries hard to stop you from wondering how much better someone like Tom Conti, James Fox, or Tom Courtenay would have been in his role. It's fun to see Paul Giamatti in a very small role, before he was being celebrated for his body of work, and Dana Ivey gets to deliver some of the best lines in the script as a very capable secretary/P.A.

It's easy to see why this wasn't a big hit when it was first released, and easy to see why it's one of many films destined to be forgotten by film fans seeking out more interesting fare, or just some of the many films that are much better than this, but Sabrina is full of performances and moments that should at least keep you smiling throughout. If you remain completely unmoved by any of it, I suspect you're actually the real-life equivalent of the character portrayed by Ford.

7/10

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Thursday, 11 September 2025

The Firm (1993)

One of two movies released in 1993 that kick-started an extra-lucrative time in the career of writer John Grisham, The Firm is an enjoyable thriller that focuses on the legal hoops the lead character needs to jump through, while also adding one or two more visceral moments for those wanting immediate thrills in their thrillers.

Tom Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a brilliant young lawyer who is given an offer he can't refuse from a prestigious law firm. He and his wife (Abby, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn) have to relocate, and there are long working days in his near future, but the rewards seem well worth the investment, especially as he is taken under the wing of Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman). Things seem a bit too good to be true though, which means they are. It turns out that the law firm has one or two secrets, and someone may be willing to kill to keep them secret.

There are very few movies adapted from John Grisham novels that don't benefit from having a stacked cast, but The Firm remains a high watermark. Alongside Cruise, Tripplehorn, and Hackman, you get Hal Holbrook, Wilford Brimley, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, David Strathairn, Gary Busey, Tobin Bell, and Dean Norris. There are also two main supporting roles for Terry Kinney and Barbara Garrick, people you will know by sight even if you can't put a face to their names right now. This is a Grisham movie, but it's also very much an actor's movie, and there's nobody here who disappoints (although Bell and Norris are very much locked in to the role of the "deadly stranger" required to add the proper physical threat alongside the legal wrangling, which is saying something in a film that also brings in Paul Sorvino and Joe Viterelli before the end credits roll.

Adapted from the novel by David Rabe, David Rayfiel, and the legendary Robert Towne, things are paced really well as viewers are introduced to the onscreen world, start learning some of the jargon, or at least have enough context clues to get the gist, and can then share the unease as some characters start to become suspicious about the way business is being conducted by the firm. The cast are all very capable of selling the dialogue, and Sydney Pollack once again shows himself to be one of the best in the business when it comes to presenting some potentially dry and dull material in a way that feels impressively engaging and propulsive.

It's hard to pin down why this works as well as it does, and those familiar with the novel may disagree (I know many were unhappy with how the ending changed from page to screen), but the main thing is a feeling of quality, as well as the way in which the plot has been made easily understandable without seeming too patronising. There are a few elements I can point to as being sub-par, maybe some of the score and some of the make up being used to show how tired and strained Cruise is in the second half, and some may be put off by the fact that the runtime is 154 minutes, but I would generally recommend this to anyone after blockbuster entertainment that focuses on the cast ahead of any random explosions and special effects.

8/10