Splashes of timelessness

Rating: 6/10 (14 February 2008)

A movie that failed to live up to it's historic praise for several reasons.
Mainly, the chemistry between these two just does not feel as heart-tugging as one would expect. Actually it feels a little creepy at times, in a father/daughter sort of way.
Bogart of course remains the picture-perfect image of an old Hollywood, jaded leading man, but ultimately feels like a subtle caricature as the one-liner's role on.
The final scene, after hearing so much about it, left me wanting more, and not in a love-lingers-painfully kind of way either.
Despite these imperfections, Casablanca still has numerous moments where you do see cinematic time stopping and the historical relevance of the work starting to make sense. It is simply a matter of differentiating what the public has made legendary and what actually works even today.