TWO FOR THE ROAD is one of the best films about marriage.
Written: Feb 09 '00 (Updated Mar 07 '01)
Product Rating:
Pros: An energetic, funny, bitter-sweet, poignant study of a modern married couple.
Cons: Singles may not appreciate the truths of the film as much as marrieds.
The Bottom Line: Writer Frederic Raphael and Director Stanley Donen create a metaphor for marriage that is at once both timeless and specific to "The Swinging Sixties." I think that's called Art.
Most cinematic views of married life are either funny like THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, 1956, or dark studies of adultery, such as the THE END OF THE AFFAIR, 1999. Seldom do we find a film about a couple, or even a trio, that is serious, funny and entertaining, all at the same time. TWO FOR THE ROAD (Donen, 1967) is a rare exception.
I first saw it over twenty years ago at a local film festival, where Audrey Hepburn was being honored. After clips of a number of the astonishing films in which she starred (ROMAN HOLIDAY, WAR AND PEACE, FUNNY FACE, THE NUN'S STORY, THE UNFORGIVEN, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, CHARADE, MY FAIR LADY, ROBIN AND MARIAN), she was interviewed. As always she was glowing and modest, suggesting she had just been lucky in directors, writers and cameramen, but she said there was one film of which she was truly proud: TWO FOR THE ROAD.
A puzzled murmur drifted through the fans. Few of us had ever heard of it. A man behind me whispered to his companion, "It didn't do much business." I had never seen it. Fortunately, Miss Hepburn proceeded to have it screened for us.
What a revelation!
TWO FOR THE ROAD (1968) tells the story of the 12 year marriage of a British couple, Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) and his wife Joanna (Audrey Hepburn), from their courtship to the birth of their children, through their quarrels and affairs, to their separation and reconciliation.
Frederic Raphael (DARLING, 1965; EYES WIDE SHUT, 1999) fashioned a truly magical script that races back and forth in time and space from England to France. He creates a film about marriage in which memory replaces time, and "the road" that crosses boundaries of Britain and France acts as a metaphor for the give and take necessary to sustain any long term relationship. Britain has seldom been so male, France so feminine.
[It is interesting to contrast Kubrick's heavy treatment of a Raphael script about marriage for EYES WIDE SHUT with Donen's light, dancing style in TWO FOR THE ROAD.]
Unlike any movie I can think of, TWO FOR THE ROAD is even handed in its depiction of a couple over the years. They are handsome, talented and really very loving, but they have weaknesses of ego, and each has needs of gender. Their story is told in brilliant time shifts full of humor, hurt and poignancy.
Complicating their lives are the kind of couples and individuals we all meet on the road. In this case they are played by William Daniels (THE GRADUATE, 1967, OH, GOD, 1977, REDS, 1981), Eleanor Bron (HELP, 1965, A LITTLE PRINCESS, 1995), Claude Dauphin (LE PLAISIR, 1952, CASQUE D'OR, 1952), Nadia Gray (LA DOLCE VITA, 1960), and Jacqueline Bisset (BULLET, 1968, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN, 1972, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, 1974, THE DEEP, 1977, UNDER THE VOLCANO, 1984, SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS, 1989, LA CEREMONIE, 1995). Under the direction of Stanley Donen (in his most serious film, and his best next to SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, 1952), these actors provide the stew in which marriage simmers.
The sunlight and shadow of these lives is illustrated by the splendid color photography of Christopher Challis (who emerged from under Michael Powell's cloak along with Jack Cardiff), and beguiled by a memorable musical theme and score provided by Hank Mancini.
Of course, none of this would work so well without the talented presence of Albert Finney (TOM JONES, 1963) and Audrey Hepburn, two of the most versatile movie actors in the last half of the 20th Century. We absolutely believe in this couple, from their giddy experience of being in love to the mature, rueful realization that, after 12 years and the emotional capital they have invested, it is better be two on the road who know each other than a pair of lonely singles among strangers.
TWO FOR THE ROAD is a film that any married couple might sit down to watch together every six months or so. I wish I had in my last marriage.
Director Stanley Donen s funny, poignant look at the 12-year marriage of Joanna and Mark Wallace mixes blissful marital memories with a healthy dose o...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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