Roman Holiday: A Quick Review

"Roman Holiday," is a romantic comedy, released in 1953, and written and directed by William Wyler.  It starred Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, and Eddie Albert.  It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning three, including a Best Actress Award for Audrey Hepburn, in her first lead role in a film.  Not a bad way to start off a career in Hollywood.

 Hepburn plays Princess Ann.  No one is quite sure what country she is the princess of exactly, but luckily that doesn't affect the plot at all.  She is traveling around Europe and while in Rome, she decides all of her royal responsibilities are too stressful so she opts to wander around Rome by herself.  Luckily, Joe Bradley (Peck), a reporter, finds her on a bench that night.  Naturally, they take a liking to one another, because I am reviewing a romantic comedy here.  So off they go on a day full of fun and Italian cafes, motorcycle rides, and relationships blossoming faster than the speed of light.  Eddie Albert plays Irving, a photographer friend of Joe.

Normally romantic comedies make me literally want to vomit everywhere...absolutely everywhere.  They are one of the worst genres ever: cheesy, sappy, hormonal, unoriginal, annoying, repulsive, predictable, unfunny, etc.  And almost all of them in recent memory have included Sarah Jessica Parker, Drew Barrymore, or Jennifer Aniston.  Yes, we know you guys have miniscule range as actresses, thanks a lot...  Then every so often you get a incredibly quality romantic comedy in the vein of "When Harry Met Sally..." and "Moonstruck."  As far as older, classic romantic comedies go "Roman Holiday" is quite a good one...and makes me want to see some more.

True, the plot line is not original, that's just the nature of the genre, or of movies in general for that manner...since every movie follows one of about only 10 plot lines.  However, the two leads are great.  Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck are Hollywood legends and in "Roman Holiday" they had believable, natural chemisry with one another that was enjoyable to watch.  It helped that they were given dialogue, that while not always being laugh out loud funny, was well written and  succeeded in moving the plot along.  It just made interactions between the characters fun to watch.

Besides the attractive leads, Rome would be another huge draw of this movie.  This film was the first American film to be completely shot in Rome.  This probably goes without saying, that Rome is a beautiful place.  However, "Roman Holiday," once again proves this.  There are beautifully shots all around Rome, many of them outside, that just add to the cinematography in the film.  Also, it's completely filmed in black and white, adding to the classic, romantic feel of the movie.

If you like old, classic movies, romantic comedies, or any of the actors, then by all means check out "Roman Holiday."  It's an enjoyable, well made/acted movie, with one of my favorite actresses, and it doesn't end as most romantic comedies normally do.

3 1/2 out of 4 stars

-Joseph Sbrilli