Product Description

AN UGLY DUCKLING HAVING UNDERGONE A REMARKABLE CHANGE, STILL HARBORS FEELINGS FOR HER CRUSH: A CAREFREE PLAYBOY, BUT NOT BEFORE HIS BUSINESS-FOCUSED BROTHER HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT IT.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1064 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2002-01-15
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Amazon.com
Julia Ormond faced one of the great challenges of her career when she tried to re-create Audrey Hepburn's title role in the 1995 remake of 1954's Sabrina. Happily, Ormond performed admirably, and while she may not have the same gamine charm of Hepburn, she makes the role her own. In fact, her transformation from mousy girl to sophisticated young woman is actually more dramatic in this updated version. The basic plot is the same--chauffeur's daughter falls in love with the son of the rich household, only to be wooed away by the older brother for business purposes--but it has been entertainingly modernized: The head of the Larrabee household is the strong matriarch (Nancy Marchand); Sabrina goes to Paris to work with a photographer instead of going to cooking school (although that means the wonderful "new egg" scene of the original had to be ditched); David's (Greg Kinnear) character has been toned down and made more sympathetic; and Humphrey Bogart's revolutionary plastic has become the flattest TV screen ever made. Lauren Holly does a fine job playing Elizabeth Tyson, David's fiancée. If you watch this for its own worth--instead of comparing it to the original--this will prove to be a terrific lighthearted romantic comedy. --Jenny Brown

From The New Yorker
Sydney Pollack's rehash of the Billy Wilder comedy, scripted this time by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel, both updates and downgrades the original, running dangerously low on style and completely short of fun. The role that Audrey Hepburn made famous goes to Julia Ormond, who looks fabulous enough but doesn't strike sparks off anyone; the two Larrabee brothers, who vie alternately for Sabrina's affection, are played by Harrison Ford (as Linus the lump) and Greg Kinnear (as David the swell). What laughs there are blow in from the supporting roles: Sabrina's father (John Wood), the elder Mrs. Larrabee (Nancy Marchand), and Linus's secretary (Dana Ivey). If you arrive half an hour late, you'll manage to miss the early Parisian scenes, which are unspeakable. The Sydney Pollack who made "Tootsie" is strangely absent from this picture; the Sydney Pollack who ground us down with "The Firm" is much in evidence. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Cinderella has nothing on her
I was surprised at how good this movie is. A remake of a movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, directed by one of the greats of American cinema, Billy Wilder, is not exactly the kind of task for the faint of heart. The fact that Sydney Pollack (They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), Tootsie (1982), Out of Africa (1985), etc.) decided to do it must have raised a few eyebrows in Hollywood land.

And let's just say I had preconceptions as I sat down to watch this. No way could this be anything near as good as the original. And for the first twenty minutes or so I was not dissuaded. Julia Ormond, who was given Miss Hepburn's title role, seemed nothing far removed from ordinary; and Greg Kinnear, who played the playboy David Larrabee, seemed a poor imitation of William Holden. Of course Harrison Ford, I told myself, is another story, since he is the embodiment of the fulfillment of the desire of many woman, and a fine, accomplished leading man. He would be, I suspected, the lone bright spot. In the original, Humphrey Bogart, a little past his prime, and in not exactly the best of moods, and not entirely pleased with the relatively inexperienced Audrey Hepburn, played the cool tycoon Linus Larrabee with some distracted forbearance in what many consider one of his lesser performances. Surely Harrison Ford could improve on that.

He did, but what really surprised me was just how diabolically clever the oh, so romantic script by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel turned out to be. I mean, Cinderella move over. Sabrina could not have achieved a more glorious existence had she died and gone to heaven. It is hard to imagine a more fulfilling fantasy for a chauffeur's daughter than what transpires here.

Quickly here's the premise of this celluloid fairy tale/romance: Pretty but ordinary Sabrina, born of working class parents, her father the chauffeur of the ultra rich Larrabees, grows up living above the garage in the palatial Larrabee estate. She watches the lavish parties thrown by the Larrabees from a spot in a tree and falls madly in the kind of puppy love that never goes away with the younger of the Larrabee brothers, David, who is the kind of guy who gives playboys a bad name. When she comes of age, she goes away to Paris (apparently to work for a fashion magazine: in the original Sabrina, she goes to a cooking school in Paris), picks up confidence and a new kind of eye-popping sophistication, comes back and...well, gets noticed.

The basic skeleton of this, the story from the first Sabrina (1954), which is dreamily romantic enough and then some, is greatly augmented here with some very fine psychological touches including developing Sabrina's character beyond the pretty and stylish to something bordering on the wise and heroic. Suffice it to say that we come away feeling she deserves every rainbow's end she gets. I can see Benedek and Rayfiel exclaiming with riotous joy as they are writing the script (trading e-mails perhaps): "They want romance, they want woman's fantasy? They want Sabrina to have a pot of gold and true love everlasting? How about riches beyond counting and the doting attention of the two handsome, very rich brothers? She can take her pick. We've give 'em romance, we'll give 'em dreams come true!" And they do. Not only that, but they keep us guessing about who gets the girl until the last possible moment, and they do that very cleverly.

Of course it helps to have professional direction by Sydney Pollack and a fine cast including Harrison Ford--at his best, by the way--and Julia Ormond, a hard-working and talented actress (I recall her from Smilla's Sense of Snow, 1997), who knows how to be cute without fawning, supported by Greg Kinnear, Nancy Marchand, John Wood and Angie Dickinson. I mention Miss Dickinson because, as the mother of a perspective bride about to throw an incredibly lavish wedding, she gets to deliver this "let them eat cake" line: "We thought we'd use recycled paper" (for the wedding invitations).

The script is full of similar witticisms, some verbal, some like eye candy. For example, when Sabrina removes her glasses (the usual Hollywood signal for the adolescent ugly duckling to become a beautiful swan) after gaining sophistication in Paris, she quotes aptly but surprisingly from Gertrude Stein: "America is my country and Paris is my home." (Of course Gertrude Stein never heard of Paris, Texas--but that is another film, and besides, I digress...)

I also liked it when Sabrina is in the arms of her Paris would-be lover who kisses her, and--noticing that she is not as engaged as she might me-observes with perfect decorum, "I'm embarrassed that you're somewhere else."

Memorable was the shot of Harrison Ford momentarily looking jealous and hurt. By the way, he has a number of good lines, and he delivers them well. I especially liked it when he sadly confessed: "I was sent to deal with you. I sent myself."

It is probably better if you haven't seen the original and can experience this on its own merits without the odiousness that sometimes comes with comparisons. Comparing Audrey Hepburn with Julia Ormond is like comparing Grace Kelly with Jennifer Lopez. They really are very different people. And comparing Billy Wilder's 1954 film (from the play by Samuel Taylor) is a little like comparing Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera with Andrew Lloyd Webber's.

Bottom line: see this for both Harrison Ford who wears the business-first character of the "only surviving heart donor" very well, and for Julia Ormond whose intense and beguiling performance makes us forgive her for not being Audrey Hepburn.

More than just a romantic comedy...
This remake of the 1954 Sabrina starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart adds its own wonderful twist on a classic. Harrison Ford is Linus Larrabee, the eldest son of the Larrabee family who took over the reigns for his father and turned the multi-million dollar family business into some "serious cash." Greg Kinnear makes his onscreen debut and makes the younger brother, David, into a lovable hopeless lover. Sabrina, played by the incandescent Julia Ormond, admires David from afar, and is the daughter of the family's chaffeur. After a trip to Paris turns Sabrina into a stunning beauty, David finds it hard to keep his attentions on his lovely fíance, Elizabeth Tyson (Lauren Holly). Linus proceeds to court Sabrina for what seems to be "business purposes", but is he really hinding his feelings for the beautiful Sabrina? Nancy Marchand plays as Maude Larrabee, David's and Linus's mother, and has some real gems for lines, adding to the devilishly clever sarcasm that makes this movie absolutely hilarious. Definitely one of the best movies I know of.

What's wrong with you people?
I don't care what anyone says; there's no need to compare 1995's SABRINA to the Audrey Hepburn classic. This one, in my opinion, is far superior than the original. By default, film as an artform has evolved and matured far beyond where it was almost half a century ago. Unless the original was of undebatable achievement in every aspect, from technical to artistic(which the original SABRINA wasn't), the remake will usually be more refined due to the natural evolution of film making technique and sensibility. Side by side, the 1995 SABRINA is more clever in dialogue, plot, and filming. Let's not even get into how the Hepburn version is better simply because it's OLD, or a legendary actress was in it; who's to say 1995's SABRINA won't become a classic and Julia Ormond won't become a legendary actress? (Well, I think all Julia fans would agree that she's ALREADY legendary, from her debut, and throughout every single effort she's made.)On top of that, Harrison and Greg made much more charming and convincing Linus and David than the original cast. Another touch that made it better was changing Sabrina's Paris trip to becoming a photgrapher instead of a cook. It gave her so much more confidence and validated her as an individual who's accomplished in artistic achievement and sensitivity(which matched her sentimental personality far better). It was also a great move to have Linus truely be the head of the family by taking out the father. That way, Linus became even more of a figure to be intimidated by, and the weight on his shoulders seemed that much heavier. The original SABRINA didn't do a very good job at convincing us why Linus should fall in love with Sabrina. The 1995 version did a great job showing us how Sabrina managed to melt Linus's icy exterior by being sensitive, understanding, encouraging, and challenging to him. What can I say? I love 1995's version. If you havn't seen it, please give it a try. You will be delighted.