An Affair to Remember

Released Jan 1, 2000

1h 55m

Romance

List

67%

Tomatometer

33 Reviews

87%

Audience Score

25,000+ Ratings

A man and a woman have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps her from the reunion, and he fears that she has married or does not love him anymore.

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Critics Consensus

There's not too much to it besides Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, but that's still enough to make this An Affair to Remember.

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

McCarey plays the shipboard courtship for generous and tender laughs-the wryly staged first kiss is one of the sweetest in all cinema-but the comedy that follows on dry land is mostly inadvertent.

May 22, 2017

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

Slant Magazine

Often regarded (or dreaded) as the ultimate chick flick, due in no small amount to its fetish-object role in Sleepless in Seattle, An Affair to Remember deserves better than to be the receptor of Meg Ryan's crocodile tears.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 20, 2008

Full Review

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Mr. McCarey's direction is unpropitiously and unaccountably slow.

Rated: 2.5/5

Mar 25, 2006

Full Review

Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

An Affair To Remember works a fine line between comedy and drama but Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr keep audiences entertained.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 9, 2023

Full Review

Zita Short

InSession Film

I gasp at all the right moments and smile when she looks up at Grant with stars in her eyes but I am also floored by the dramatic scenes where she completely lets go of her composure.

Feb 3, 2023

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Here, there's still an acceptable freshness around what could have been a detrimentally dubious twist.

Rated: 9/10

Aug 15, 2020

Full Review

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Jack B

A genuine tearjerker. Grant and Kerr have "chemistry" and make convincing what might be an outlandish scenario. Yes, I cried at the ending…helped along by the very moving theme song. This really is a must-see romance movie. Even if you are the world's most unromantic viewer.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/29/23

Full Review

John E

I don't like Sleepless in Seattle. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like romcoms, chick flicks or love stories. That's not the issue at all. I simply don't like Sleepless in Seattle. I don't think it is a good movie and I find the character of Annie Reed to be a vexatious ninny, and quite frankly, a little creepy. Because of this, I've never really had much of an ambition to see An Affair to Remember, a movie that is referenced and quoted at nauseum throughout Sleepless in Seattle. That being said, An Affair to Remember ended up on my 2023 film journey through recommendation. And I must admit that I'm glad that it did! Sure, it's a bit saccharin and astoundingly chaste, but damn, the acting is magnificent. The chemistry between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is phenomenal (Grant took the role just so he could act with Kerr again). Both actors are at the top of their game. Cary Grant plays completely against type in this film. I jest! He plays a debonaire bachelor (what else?!) named Nickie Ferrante. Nickie has decided to retire his lothario-ways and settle down with a rich heiress. Kerr plays Terry McCay, a nightclub singer who, like Nickie, has decided to accept an offer of marriage (and domesticity) from a well-to-do suiter. Nickie and Terry meet by chance when they are both traveling alone aboard an ocean liner traveling from Europe to the United States. The duo share some witty repartee and discover they enjoy each other's company. Terry eventually joins Nickie as he visits his grandmother when the ship anchors near her home in the Mediterranean (this extended scene was by far my favorite). Eventually the trip is over, and Terry and Nickie realize that they have fallen in love. They depart the ship after making a pact that they shall meet each other at the top of the Empire State Building in six months if their current relationships don't work and their love for each other doesn't subside. Tragedy prevents the two from meeting, and their lives go on, each of them thinking they are doing what is best for the other by moving on with their lives apart. At this point the film becomes quite cloying and engages in full on melodrama. The ending is predictable, but one is too vested at this point to not see it through! The final scene is a full out onslaught of wrap-it-up schmaltz, but it's ultimately still a much more rewarding experience than having to see a single moment of Sleepless in Seattle ever again!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/19/23

Full Review

X O

Why do people care about Cary and Deborah getting together? Laughing at them at dinner? That is disgusting. Outside of the nosey bastrds on the boat, the rest is great. Not the best romance film of the 50s, but nice all the same.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/25/23

Full Review

Anthony J

My mother's favourite movie. The shipboard dialogue and acting are superb. The story is little, maybe a lot, far fetched and contrived. The whole thing is badly dated - do men on a cruse ship vacation all wear suits and tie, the women, evening gowns and heels. I don't think they did, even back then.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/15/23

Full Review

Jo R

One of my favorite movies. The final scene is a tear jerker. Cary Grant conveys so much by doing so little. A movie to watch time and again but don't forget the tissues!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It doesn't really get more romantically lush and sentimental than in An Affair to Remember, a film that epitomizes Golden Age Hollywood's take on love stories. This is like a Hallmark movie before there were Hallmark movies, but of exceedingly better quality.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

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Leo McCarey

Director

Cary Grant

Nickie Ferrante

Deborah Kerr

Terry McKay

Richard Denning

Kenneth

Neva Patterson

Lois

Cathleen Nesbitt

Grandmother Janou

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Synopsis

A man and a woman have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps her from the reunion, and he fears that she has married or does not love him anymore.

Director: Leo McCarey
Screenwriter: Leo McCarey, Mildred Cram, Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart, Leo McCarey
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Genre: Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 1, 2000, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 25, 2015
Runtime: 1h 55m
Sound Mix: Stereo

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