First of all I was very surprised to read all these negative comments about Jennifer Love Hewitt's performance.
I think we should not forget that she is PLAYING Hepburn, not BEING her. Of course there are flaws, but JLH has wit, is spontaneous, can dance, and if you let yourself get involved in the story she sparkles.
The problem with this movie is not the actors but the script. They lead us to believe that in this almost 4 hour "documentary", in Belgium we see it without commercials, la Hepburn was holier than Mother Theresa. Besides eating some sugar buns under the table at age 5 (?) and drinking one glass of whiskey while flirting with Holden at an afternoon party, what did she do wrong? She's so perfect in this movie, you never wish to have a daughter like her.
The scene where she's delivering undercover messages are hilarious. With all respect for Audrey Hepburn, some of this might be true, but in that period a person would never deliver five messages for fear of being caught. The way it worked was to deliver one message and the next person would take care that he or a friend would deliver the next. I'm not a historian, but my parents told me a lot about these things.
I'm not saying Audrey's story is not true, I don't know, but when watching the entire movie it was clearly dipped in a romantic sauce, with lots of sugar on top.
The scene when she visits her father in Ireland is also very strange. This man sent her several letters (destroyed by her mother) and when she finds out she miscarriages from her first baby. (or was it really the fall from the horse?) When they finally meet the movie focuses on the fact that he does not want to see her again. Why taking all that trouble to write to your estranged daughter, make her come to Ireland, and then tell her goodbye?
It's not clear, or we should not know, or I don't know what really happened, but again Hepburn is the obedient daughter. After so many years she even tells him: Please, father, if you have things to do, continue, I will be happy just to watch you. I had another hilarious fit when he then calls the dog and starts to brush him while continuing a conversation with her. I expect doing the dishes together would be too cliché, but this is really something I cannot believe.
As another viewer commented, it would have been a lot better to get Audrey's entire life, especially what she did for UNICEF, her divorce, her second marriage, her second divorce.
This would have portrayed the real Audrey and not some absurd innocent girl (which she wasn't) and have a lot more impact.
Several times in the movie people tell her, girls want to be just like you, you portray a hope for so many persons. I certainly don't agree with this after seeing this movie.
The title after all is very well chosen: Audrey Hepburn, THE STORY.
I think we should not forget that she is PLAYING Hepburn, not BEING her. Of course there are flaws, but JLH has wit, is spontaneous, can dance, and if you let yourself get involved in the story she sparkles.
The problem with this movie is not the actors but the script. They lead us to believe that in this almost 4 hour "documentary", in Belgium we see it without commercials, la Hepburn was holier than Mother Theresa. Besides eating some sugar buns under the table at age 5 (?) and drinking one glass of whiskey while flirting with Holden at an afternoon party, what did she do wrong? She's so perfect in this movie, you never wish to have a daughter like her.
The scene where she's delivering undercover messages are hilarious. With all respect for Audrey Hepburn, some of this might be true, but in that period a person would never deliver five messages for fear of being caught. The way it worked was to deliver one message and the next person would take care that he or a friend would deliver the next. I'm not a historian, but my parents told me a lot about these things.
I'm not saying Audrey's story is not true, I don't know, but when watching the entire movie it was clearly dipped in a romantic sauce, with lots of sugar on top.
The scene when she visits her father in Ireland is also very strange. This man sent her several letters (destroyed by her mother) and when she finds out she miscarriages from her first baby. (or was it really the fall from the horse?) When they finally meet the movie focuses on the fact that he does not want to see her again. Why taking all that trouble to write to your estranged daughter, make her come to Ireland, and then tell her goodbye?
It's not clear, or we should not know, or I don't know what really happened, but again Hepburn is the obedient daughter. After so many years she even tells him: Please, father, if you have things to do, continue, I will be happy just to watch you. I had another hilarious fit when he then calls the dog and starts to brush him while continuing a conversation with her. I expect doing the dishes together would be too cliché, but this is really something I cannot believe.
As another viewer commented, it would have been a lot better to get Audrey's entire life, especially what she did for UNICEF, her divorce, her second marriage, her second divorce.
This would have portrayed the real Audrey and not some absurd innocent girl (which she wasn't) and have a lot more impact.
Several times in the movie people tell her, girls want to be just like you, you portray a hope for so many persons. I certainly don't agree with this after seeing this movie.
The title after all is very well chosen: Audrey Hepburn, THE STORY.