It's not a bad film by any means, but the hype surrounding it is ridiculous

Rating: 6/10 (7 November 2014)

In some ways Casablanca is a very difficult film for me to review as there isn't really much technically wrong with it; it's well-scripted, fairly well-acted and the musical score is excellent. It's probably best to analyse this film by highlighting the good and the bad points of this film;
What I liked about Casablanca in the first instance is the story; refugees who have come from different parts of Europe to the neutral safe haven of Casablanca which is in unoccupied French Morocco. In the beginning. we see snippets of various people who are desperate to leave Casablanca and we see these people have conversations with various people who are prepared to take bribes in order to fulfil their dreams of leaving Casablanca. Although Casablanca is an unoccupied area, refugees are still at risk of being forced into concentration camps hence their desire to flee for proper safe havens such as the US for example. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is an American expatriate who has fled occupied France and now runs a successful café/bar in Casablanca - he's a popular member of the community, but he becomes even more popular and important when several parties learn that he has acquired two exit visas - 1 of which is for Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) who the German Reich are very interested in and who are very keen on Lazlo staying in Casablanca. Blaine becomes pivotal to Lazlo's fate, but Lazlo's wife perhaps also proves pivotal to Blaine's fate as well. This creates a bit of a dilemma for Blaine which helps to increase the intrigue within the film. There was also the wonderful Dooley Wilson's portrayal as Sam - he only had a small role in the film, but I found him to be a warm and caring character and his voice was very soothing and I could listen to him sing 'As Time Goes By' all day - such a wonderful voice. So far, so good....
What I didn't like about Casablanca was how contrived and far fetched the romance was between Blaine and Lund; they fall head over heels for each other in a few days so much so that even 2 years later Blaine can't look at another woman or develop any sort of a relationship with any woman whatsoever. Please? Give me a break!! Don't get me wrong. I know that romances like this do exist, but they're usually built up over a long period of time and will usually come through several years of life experiences. I found it hard to believe that they would love each other that much when they both admit that they barely know each other; think about it. Would you fall in love with someone who you barely know? Remember don't confuse 'love' with 'lust'. It also didn't help that the film was pretty much devoid of any sort of tension or conflict - considering it is billed as a Drama, I didn't see much on screen that could be classed as Dramatic. Factor all of this with three unlikeable leads and you've got yourself a very flawed film (note that I said 'flawed' rather than 'bad').
Casablanca is a film that is worth watching, but you really need to ignore the hype and judge it on its own merits. If you're a sucker for a nice war time romance then this will do the trick. However, if you look at it a bit deeper, you will see the good, but somewhat 'flawed' classic that I watched.