Sunday, June 26, 2022

Falling in Love (1984)

IMDb plot summary: Although they live married lives, two strangers keep running into each other, starting a friendship that could blossom into so much more.
Directed by Ulu Grosbard. Starring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Harvey Keitel.

Falling in Love stars Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro as two strangers who meet by chance doing their holiday shopping and then again on the train commuting to work. Despite both being married to other people, they begin an emotional affair that upends both their lives. I have this weird thing where I don't like Meryl Streep playing "normal" people. Something about her acting style lends itself beautifully to folks who are a little off the beaten path, but whenever she tries to play an everyday kind of person, she still feels a little odd, and not in a way that adds depth to otherwise forgettable character, but in a way that mismatches the rest of the movie. That's definitely the case here, and De Niro doesn't bring much else to it either. There's no real sense of what these characters like about each other, other than a sort of "love at first sight" spark. It's more interesting to watch them navigating this with their current partners than it is to watch the two of them together. Overall a forgettable and unimpressive romance that doesn't do either of its stars any favors, although it does have a great soundtrack from Dave Grusin.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Falling in Love < Duel
Falling in Love > Asterix and Cleopatra
Falling in Love < Con Air
Falling in Love < Sand Castle
Falling in Love < The Shadow
Falling in Love > K-19: The Widowmaker
Falling in Love > Ocean's Twelve
Falling in Love < The 5th Wave
Falling in Love > The Da Vinci Code
Falling in Love > The Devil's Brigade
Falling in Love < Red River
Final spot: #2608 out of 3604, or 28%.

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