After 12 years of marriage, British couple Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney find themselves wondering whether they should continue forward through life together or go their separate ways. Bickering and bliss get equal time as husband and wife remember the past in its sunny and stormy times, and this perceptive tale of the struggle to create and maintain a fulfilling marriage rings true in nearly every scene.
Seven years earlier, director Stanley Donen explored the stress fractures in marriage with Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, and Robert Mitchum in the marvelously keen dramatic comedy THE GRASS IS GREENER, and Donen returned to the subject again in the early 1980s in BLAME IT ON RIO with less empathy and more nudity. TWO FOR THE ROAD, however, has always been the most popular of this trio of films about marriage on the rocks, as Hepburn and Finney give winning performances of partners who love each other but aren't sure they're in love anymore. Screenwriter and novelist Frederic Raphael's sparkling screenplay gives the movie zest and poignancy.
While flying from England to France to meet her architect husband for a vacation, Joanna Wallace reflects on the past 12 years of their relationship. She specifically recalls the three times that they made this journey together: the first time at the start of their relationship, the second when she was pregnant with their first child, and the third when they were beginning to grow apart.
There is a recurrent leitmotif that occurs in the film at least four times regarding Albert Finney's character, Mark Wallace, either misplacing or losing his passport and his wife, Joanna (Audrey Hepburn), always finding it.
Audrey Hepburn's amazing wardrobe--a snapshot of fashion in the late 1960s--was provided by Ken Scott, Michele Posier, Paco Rabanne, Mary Quant, and Foale and Tuffin. Hardy Amies supplied clothes for Albert Finney.
Screenwriter Frederic Raphael later coscripted EYES WIDE SHUT with Stanley Kubrick.
Excerpt: "Howard, you're the largest pocket of untapped natural gas known to man."--Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) to Howard Maxwell Manchester (William Daniels)
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Letterbox - 2.35
Widescreen - 2.35
Audio:
Closed Captioned - English
Mono - English, Spanish, French
Subtitles - English, Spanish, French
Additional Release Material:
Featurette: Restoration Comparison
Audio Commentary: Stanley Donen - Director
Trailers:
1. Original Theatrical Trailer
2. THREE COINS IN A FOUNTAIN
3. LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING
4. AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
5. PEYTON PLACE
Text/Photo Galleries:
Photo Stills
Art Director
Willy Holt: Art Director
Cinematographer
Christopher Challis: British Diretor of Photography
Art Director
Marc Frederix: French Art Director
Review 1:
"[With] Hepburn, heart-stoppingly gorgeous but also giving the strongest, most adult performance of her career..." -- Grade: A
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.61 11/04/2005
Review 2:
"...[A] chic '60s time capsule..."
Source: USA Today
p.3D 11/05/1993
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