I was pleased by this film, but also disappointed. Tracy and Hepburn were palatable, more so than usual (especially Hepburn- I LIKED her in this flick). Lucille Ball gave quite a good little dramatic performance. Perhaps the weak link in the main cast was Keenan Wynn, but he wasn't //bad//, it was just that the rest of the cast was better.
The film mananges to (mostly) avoid grossly annoying clichés by not having Tracy and Hepburn fall in love too quickly. Of course they eventually do, but that's how the Tracy-Hepburn flicks work- you just count on your fingers for them to end up together and either do or don't pay attention to how they get there.
Liked that Tracy's character was an inventor, and liked how Hepburn helped him with his invention- it was adorable. Did feel that it was a bit odd that Hepburn's character would marry so quickly, but liked the convenience angle the the marriage initially took.
The main flaw in the plot was the undercooked secondary love story between Wynn and Ball. Their story wasn't explained nearly as much- can only guess that if they had expanded on the Ball-Wynn story, the film would have been about three hours, but I would rather have a three-hour-long film where the love stories get equal time versus what I got, which is the Tracy-Hepburn love story having a decent amount of time and the Ball-Wynn one not really being that well developed.
And thus leaving us unable to feel any sympathy towards the love between Ball and Wynn. Lucille Ball shows that she could do drama as well as comedy, although she was better in comedy, but she's not bad at drama, not at all.
Hepburn and Tracy are, as I mentioned above, more easy to watch than usual. She's not grating on my nerves, and is actually acting, and he's not being a smart-a douche who feels that Hepburn's character should "Stay home! Make babies! Man better!" like he was in some of their other films, and she isn't swayed as easily by his "charms" as she is in some of their other flicks.
Yes, there are clichés. Yes, the script stinks. But it's not //that// bad. It's just barely above mediocre, and not even the stars and their good performances can do much about that.
The film mananges to (mostly) avoid grossly annoying clichés by not having Tracy and Hepburn fall in love too quickly. Of course they eventually do, but that's how the Tracy-Hepburn flicks work- you just count on your fingers for them to end up together and either do or don't pay attention to how they get there.
Liked that Tracy's character was an inventor, and liked how Hepburn helped him with his invention- it was adorable. Did feel that it was a bit odd that Hepburn's character would marry so quickly, but liked the convenience angle the the marriage initially took.
The main flaw in the plot was the undercooked secondary love story between Wynn and Ball. Their story wasn't explained nearly as much- can only guess that if they had expanded on the Ball-Wynn story, the film would have been about three hours, but I would rather have a three-hour-long film where the love stories get equal time versus what I got, which is the Tracy-Hepburn love story having a decent amount of time and the Ball-Wynn one not really being that well developed.
And thus leaving us unable to feel any sympathy towards the love between Ball and Wynn. Lucille Ball shows that she could do drama as well as comedy, although she was better in comedy, but she's not bad at drama, not at all.
Hepburn and Tracy are, as I mentioned above, more easy to watch than usual. She's not grating on my nerves, and is actually acting, and he's not being a smart-a douche who feels that Hepburn's character should "Stay home! Make babies! Man better!" like he was in some of their other films, and she isn't swayed as easily by his "charms" as she is in some of their other flicks.
Yes, there are clichés. Yes, the script stinks. But it's not //that// bad. It's just barely above mediocre, and not even the stars and their good performances can do much about that.