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Product Details

Strapless
Directed by David Hare

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16 new or used available from $14.95

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Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #79731 in DVD
Released on: 2000-09-05
Rating: R (Restricted)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Original language: English
Number of discs: 1
Running time: 100 minutes

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
In this poetic tale, acclaimed playwright and director David Hare explores the eternal enigmas of love and desire. An American doctor living in Britain, Lillian (Blair Brown), who is almost 40 and newly single, is romanced by a charming entrepreneur named Raymond (Bruno Ganz) during a European vacation. What seems to be an unlikely coupling blossoms into love as the seductive, spontaneous Raymond teaches guarded Lillian about the joys of pure passion. But is the cryptic Raymond all that he seems to be? Is their whirlwind, fairy-tale courtship simply based on a desire to escape the banality of everyday life? And can independent Lillian truly commit to him with the reality of a looming doctors' strike and her single, freewheeling sister's (Bridget Fonda) pregnancy? Exquisitely photographed by Andrew Dunn, Hare's intelligent film uses subtle flourishes to explore Lillian's fear of commitment, Raymond's obsession with everlasting romantic love, and how his deceptions ultimately transform both their lives. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews

the straps might help
This obtuse romantic drama from writer/director playwright David Hare is a major misfire after his debut with Wetherby and the underrated Paris by Night. Anyone that knows Hare as a playwright, knows that he specialises in doomed relationships, which was a feature of both Wetherby and Plenty. It is said that Plenty came out of Hare's real life relationship with actress Kate Nelligan who did the London and Broadway runs but lost the film role to Meryl Streep. It is said too that this film is Hare's paean to Blair Brown who won hearts on her cable TV series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. However while Fred Schepisi made Streep look great in Plenty but failed to help her overcome her basic miscasting, Hare as director does the opposite for Brown, by lighting her unflatteringly but still managing to let us see her skill as an actor. Like Susan Traherne in Plenty, Brown's American doctor living in England is meant to be emotionally fragile and therefore vulnerable to the exotic gambler "Mr Forbes" (Bruno Ganz) who urges her to "jump" in his use of horse metaphors. Hare likes his portents, giving Brown a terminal patient, so when Brown meets Ganz gazing at a crucifix with him picking up her dropped handerkerchief, things don't bode well for them, (the handkerchief is a particularly corny touch), and having a sign at a registry office "No rice or confetti is to be thrown on council premises". Hare's screenplay is lumbered with lines that are embarassing for a playwright of his stature, like "I'm totally in love with you and old enough to know I always will be", "I don't have it in me to have a baby", "He was running on empty", "He went to the heart of me", and "You have certain feelings and then you have to pick up the bill". This is the kind of movie where someone flees to a storeroom for solace and gets a succession of visitors, and being set in England, where a cup of tea is the answer to all problems. The setup actually comes across as a conceit that might work better on the stage than in film, highlighted by the explaination of the title with models dressing in hospital curtained spaces. Hare continues his misuse of over-orchestrated music that blighted Wetherby, even beginning the film with Nat King Cole's syrupy version of When I Fall in Love. The best scenes involve Bridget Fonda as Brown's sister, even if Fonda's character is the irresponsible uninhibited free spirit that Brown is not. (Since she is Brown's sister, we know Brown has the potential). It's a pity that Fonda is used as a character obstacle when she is the most likeable of the actors. Hare's only resonant image is a couple to be married, she in yellow and he in blue, each with an arm behind the other, as if the colours will merge into green at any moment. And he even denies us the sight of the models parading their strapless gowns in the fashion show fundraiser that ends the film. Instead he freezes behind the back of someone about to enter the catwalk.