09/24/09 - Funny Face

Funny Face (1957, 103 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050419/

Another movie that I watch solely for the fact that it has Audrey Hepburn in it. My past two ventures into this had yielded Breakfast at Tiffany's which was good and Roman Holiday which was great. Funny Face is a musical so I didn't know how that would change things.

Audrey Hepburn stars as Jo Stockton, a book store worker who becomes a model so that she can go to Paris and meet up with the philosopher she devoutly follows, one Prof. Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). Playing the head honcho of the magazine that's funding the trip is Kay Thompson as Maggie Prescott. Serving as photographer for the new star is Fred Astaire playing Dick Avery. Not surprisingly, Stockton and Avery fall in love but it isn't without a few bumps in the road.

I felt some people were out of their element by way of this being a musical. Hepburn didn't seem like the same quality of singer as Astaire but his acting was noticeably bad. This produced an odd chemistry that just didn't seem to work out that well. Being a romantic musical, having good singing and a good on screen relationship is essential and Funny Face was not particularly strong on either point. Prescott's acting and singing was fine in my opinion. I will note that Astaire was at his best doing dances and jumping around on stage. Finally, I can say that it appeared that everyone was enjoying themselves in the movie so that was a major plus.

As Audrey was again the focus of my attention, I only became further cemented in the opinion that she is the most beautiful person to have lived. She has the same striking beauty and unmatchable elegance in Funny Face that I've seen her carry herself with in the aforementioned two films. Fred Astaire is no match for the awesomeness of Gregory Peck from Roman Holiday, though.

Overall, I gave this film a 5/10. The film was pretty fun throughout. It never really tried to be too serious and for the most part it was highly enjoyable. Throw in someone that can act better than Astaire and with roughly equal singing and performing talents and the movie would be far better. The chemistry was the only thing really lacking in the film, but since that's such a crucial part of making this type of film work, it really hurt the finished product.