Sabrina

Plot synopsis:
Sabrina Fairchild (Julia Ormond), is the Larrabee chauffeur's daughter. Maude Larrabee (Nancy Marchand) inherited the business, her son Linus (Harrison Ford) runs the business, and her other son David (Greg Kinnear) is the family playboy. Sabrina spends her time watching David from afar, but he doesn't know who she is.On the eve of her departure to Paris, Sabrina confesses her love, but to Linus by mistake. She goes to Paris to work at Vogue Magazine, and falls in love with the photographer, Louis (Patrick Bruel). She begins to mature and understand fashion as well as photography. In the meantime, David falls in love with Elizabeth Tyson (Lauren Holly), who is the daughter of Patrick Tyson (Richard Crenna). Linus sees this as a potential merger with Tyson Electronics.When Sabrina hears of the pending nuptials, she realizes she is still in love with David. She returns home, more glamorous, and sees David. He is surprised and doesn't recognize her and invites her to a party. David becomes smitten with her, much to the chagrin of his family.On the way to meet with Sabrina, David gets hurt, and Linus goes in his stead. They dance and talk, and Linus hatches a plan to get her away from David. Linus takes Sabrina to Martha's Vineyard, under the pretense of photographing a summer cottage that the Larrebee's own. They talk more, and Linus realizes she's bright and interesting. He begins to court her, and she is stuck between David and Linus.Linus decides to take Sabrina to Paris to allow David to marry Elizabeth. Maude realizes he is planning to dump her after the merger, and Linus meets Sabrina. He feels guilty and confesses his plan. She decides to go to Paris, alone. Sabrina tells David, and he confronts Linus. Linus tells David he's willing to sacrifice the merger, and gives David a ticket for Paris.The next day, David interrupts a meeting and tells Linus that he's staying with Elizabeth, and that Linus should go to Paris. Linus takes the Concorde and gets there before Sabrina. He tells her he loves her, and they embrace.The end.

Tags: dramatic, romantic, fantasy

Review:
Two songs that were written for the movie, "(In the) Moonlight" and "How Can I Remember?", are just as memorable and perfectly capture the feelings of romance and longing.Hollywood has made a number of successful romantic movies, and I think "Sabrina" ranks as one of its best.
While I'm sure the play was a great evening out at the theater between martinis in the 1950s, it's somewhat incredible that two film versions so profoundly translated this lightweight romantic comedy, each in its own time.In 1954, Billy Wilder used an incredible cast to entertain.
You can watch this scene over and over and each time gain a better understanding of how great acting can define a relationship, this one between mother and son, for an audience.But this film should have been called Linus.
Harrison Ford's tour de force performance as the greater Larrabee fulfills Pollack's mission to tell a simple story of how a king is transformed by the love of a woman."It was a lie, then it was a dream.".
A remake of a movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, directed by one of the greats of American cinema, Billy Wilder, is not exactly the kind of task for the faint of heart.
Julia Ormond, who was given Miss Hepburn's title role, seemed nothing far removed from ordinary; and Greg Kinnear, who played the playboy David Larrabee, seemed a poor imitation of William Holden.
In the original, Humphrey Bogart, a little past his prime, and in not exactly the best of moods, and not entirely pleased with the relatively inexperienced Audrey Hepburn, played the cool tycoon Linus Larrabee with some distracted forbearance in what many consider one of his lesser performances.
When she comes of age, she goes away to Paris (apparently to work for a fashion magazine: in the original Sabrina, she goes to a cooking school in Paris), picks up confidence and a new kind of eye-popping sophistication, comes back and...well, gets noticed.The basic skeleton of this, the story from the first Sabrina (1954), which is dreamily romantic enough and then some, is greatly augmented here with some very fine psychological touches including developing Sabrina's character beyond the pretty and stylish to something bordering on the wise and heroic.
Not only that, but they keep us guessing about who gets the girl until the last possible moment, and they do that very cleverly.Of course it helps to have professional direction by Sydney Pollack and a fine cast including Harrison Ford--at his best, by the way--and Julia Ormond, a hard-working and talented actress (I recall her from Smilla's Sense of Snow, 1997), who knows how to be cute without fawning, supported by Greg Kinnear, Nancy Marchand, John Wood and Angie Dickinson.
For example, when Sabrina removes her glasses (the usual Hollywood signal for the adolescent ugly duckling to become a beautiful swan) after gaining sophistication in Paris, she quotes aptly but surprisingly from Gertrude Stein: "America is my country and Paris is my home." (Of course Gertrude Stein never heard of Paris, Texas--but that is another film, and besides, I digress...)I also liked it when Sabrina is in the arms of her Paris would-be lover who kisses her, and--noticing that she is not as engaged as she might me–observes with perfect decorum, "I'm embarrassed that you're somewhere else."Memorable was the shot of Harrison Ford momentarily looking jealous and hurt.
And comparing Billy Wilder's 1954 film (from the play by Samuel Taylor) is a little like comparing Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera with Andrew Lloyd Webber's.Bottom line: see this for both Harrison Ford who wears the business-first character of the "only surviving heart donor" very well, and for Julia Ormond whose intense and beguiling performance makes us forgive her for not being Audrey Hepburn.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
I've never seen Ford play such a staid, uncharismatic character as Linus before but I get the impression from watching the film that he enjoyed the opportunity to take on this kind of part.
Nancy Marchand was hysterically funny as the crabby Mrs. Larabee, and John Wood turned in a good performance as Sabrina's father.But I did have a harder time with Harrison Ford's Linus.
The cast(Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear) performs well and its production values are high but director Sydney Pollack's pacing tends to flag.
Harrison Ford takes on the Humphrey Bogart role in the Sidney Pollack remake of Billy Wilder's 1954 SABRINA.
Greg Kinnear plays his younger brother, and Julia Ormond plays Sabrina, the free-spirited daughter of the chauffeur for the massive estate run by Ford and his mommy (Nancy Marchand).
Kinnear, who is actually pretty funny as Harrison's kid brother, is inexplicably left out of the entire middle of the movie so that it can focus on Ford wooing the confused Sabrina, who thinks she loves Kinnear but then decides she loves Ford.
Light though overlong romantic comedy-remake (of the 1954 classic movie) with nice actors , luxurious scenarios and decent direction .
The known story of Sabrina (this role is a good vehicle for Julia Ormond) , the chauffeur's daughter , who falls in love for a millionaire (Greg Kinnear in his film debut) , the handsome younger brother in the wealthy mansion where her daddy works .
Main cast is frankly excellent , though Julia Ormond as gorgeous young who has a longlife crush on Greg Kinnear -as a womanizer billionaire- are far from Audrey Hepburn and William Holden respectively .
This fine cast works , giving acceptable interpretations , though inferior to original and classic picture (1954) by Billy Wilder and starred by Humphrey Bogart , Audrey Hepburn, , John Williams , Martha Hyer , Francis X Bushman .
Sabrina has been in love with playboy brother (of wealthy family) David (Greg Kinnear) all her life, and is dismayed when her father sends her off to Paris to get a new view of the world.
Behind this interaction, older brother and businessman Linus (Harrison Ford), whose pleased about David's engagement, seeing that he's marrying the daughter of wealthy business competitor Mr. Tyson, knows that Sabrina just might end the marriage and the merger.
Naturally while trying to get Kinnear, Ormond will fall in love with his older brother (Harrison Ford).
2. The casting of everybody in this movie: Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear, Nancy Marchand, John Wood, and other actors are done very well.
I thought Ormond and Kinnear were good, but found Harrison Ford (whom I usually like) unconvincing and unattractive in the role.
If you ask me, the way that Sabrina (Julia Ormond) and David (Greg Kinnear) met up again after several years was very romantic.
In conclusion, if you are a fan of Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, or Greg Kinnear, you should definitely see this movie.
Let's not even get into how the Hepburn version is better simply because it's OLD, or a legendary actress was in it; who's to say 1995's SABRINA won't become a classic and Julia Ormond won't become a legendary actress?
(Well, I think all Julia fans would agree that she's ALREADY legendary, from her debut, and throughout every single effort she's made.) On top of that, Harrison and Greg made much more charming and convincing Linus and David than the original cast.
There's just something about hearing Ford say 'I love it [dancing], they call me Bojangles at work' and 'I like Sabrina - I always have - but I'm not going to let her blow a billion dollar business deal...I don't care what she did with her hair...' that I doubt Humphrey Bogart could duplicate, even if he had the lines.I gave this movie a 9/10...it probably would have been 10/10 but there's something in me that refuses to give a 'romantic comedy' a perfect mark....
Bill Holden and Greg Kinnear both have the same kind of personality to make David's character work.Of course, in truth, Harrison Ford was not that believable as the parsimonious scold - his conversion seemed too easy.
"Sabrina" 1995 tells of a young chauffeur's daughter (Ormond) who grows up in the shadow of a wealthy family with two eligible bachelors; one all work (Ford) and the other all play (Kinnear).
Desultory remake of the Billy Wilder classic.Julia Ormond gets the Audrey Hepburn role, and while those are pretty big shoes to fill, she could have at least tried to give a more compelling performance than the listless one she actually gives.
"Sabrina" doesn't really work if you spend the whole movie wondering why any man would want to bother with such a wet noodle.Of course, the same could be said for the Harrison Ford character as well -- who'd want to waste her time on such a fuddy-duddy when the uber-charming Greg Kinnear is waiting in the background?
Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear and Nancy Marchand certainly know how to play their roles convincingly, but it just isn't enough to save the entire movie.
I liked Ford and Kinnear better than Bogart and Holden; Ormond good but no Hepburn.
I know I liked Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear as the two brothers, while I had somewhat less enthusiasm for the brothers in the original movie.Julia Ormond certainly did a good job as Sabrina, but there will not likely be another Audrey Hepburn.
Old-fashioned plot about a mousy chauffeur's daughter returning from a Paris trip looking like a million bucks and being wooed by two wealthy brothers was done complete justice by Billy Wilder in '54, directing an incandescent Audrey Hepburn in the title role.
Julia Ormond has the thankless task of trying to fill La Hepburn's shoes, though Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear are well-cast as the brothers and the romantic sweep of Sabrina's story makes this passable entertainment.
1995 saw the release of a great American romantic comedy in Hollywood tradition, "The American president", but it's Pollack's "Sabrina" that deserves the title because it's based on the 1954' classic, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart.
But at the risk of sounding like another heretic, I thought Sydney Pollack's remake, if not better, is a solid match to the original acting-wise and more than anything, storytelling-wise.I insist on the storytelling department because it contradicts the idea of the original's greatness relying on its monumental cast, incomparable to the Sidney Pollack, Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear and Julia Osmond's quartet.
And while Pollack could have kept the movie's track and bring David to make the deal possible, he also develops his seemingly one-dimensional personality.I liked Holden in "Sabrina", and his chemistry with Hepburn was so sincere it really veiled any hint of sentiment toward the elderly Bogart.
The ending was the only hit-or-miss, and while I thought the hug between Hepburn and Bogart was awkward, just a kiss in Paris wouldn't have been enough to ruin the whole efforts.But I wasn't surprised, that Linus would apologize to Sabrina, considering the scene where he broke her heart, a scene whose emotionality clearly surpasses the original.
That's what I call, a beautiful romance, comedic or not, it was the perfect conclusion for a movie that had so much to prove to be respected, and that even managed to be superior to the original film, and it's one of the rare instances where I'm not hesitant to give it a higher rating.It doesn't diminish the classic status of Billy Wilder's "Sabrina", Julia Osmond is not Audrey Hepburn, and Harrison Ford isn't Bogart, but like I said for the previous film, good ingredient don't necessarily make a good meal, what matters is how the director makes his interactions believable and emotionally appealing.
although it's a remake, as almost all remakes aren't that good as the original, i personally loved this version other than the Audrey Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart version.Julia Ormond portrayed the role Sabrina Fairchild so realistic and in such an elegant way you will be really taken away by her acting.
and let's not forget the funny portrayal of Greg Kinnear as the younger David Larrabee, the long time crush of young Sabrina.full of enchanting moments under the moonlight and on top of the tree, you will fall for this wonderful movie..
What makes you think you can recreate anything better than a film that boasted a script by the great Billy Wilder and a cast of Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and the fabulous Audrey Hepburn?
I adore Audrey Hepburn and normally disapprove of remaking a classic, but admit I quite enjoyed this one, if for no other reason than its stars, Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond.This is the story of the tomboyish daughter, Sabrina, of the chauffeur employed by the wealthy Larabee family, who spends much of her teenage years in a tree spying on the Larabee family members and their lavish parties.
This younger brother becomes injured, so to divert Sabrina's attention and ensure the business deal, Linus starts paying court to her, but hasn't counted on the feelings he's starting to have for her himself...It's been awhile since I've seen this movie, so have forgotten most other cast members, but found the magnetic Harrison Ford perfect as the older brother, Linus, both as the wealthy, serious business tycoon with his big specs, and later, the socially inept romantic lead (Personally, I cannot imagine Humphrey Bogart, as fond as I am of him, playing the role of Linus.) Julia Ormond is absolutely stunning, proving herself a veritable swan that has emerged from her ugly duckling, tomboy, tree perching years.
The cast(Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear) performs well and its production values are high but director Sydney Pollack is no Billy Wilder.
Even though it isn't as good as the original 1954 version, this movie, brought to the screen by director Sydney Pollack simply has too much romantic appeal and on-screen chemistry to be dismissed as "just another" in the ever-growing pool of remakes..
I hate to say it, but I actually like this remake better than the original movie.
Personally, I think that Ford and Ormond have definitely more chemistry than the original couple of Bogart and Hepburn and that they are way more convincing.
I've seen the 1954 version and this one and liked them both; although, I liked this one better.Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond do a good job playing the uptight business obsessed Linus, and Sabrina, the chauffeur's daughter.
While the original movie Sabrina is a charming, romantic, and glamorous comedy, this remake was completely inferior in every way.
I could not understand why Sabrina fell in love with Linus in the Hepburn-Bogart version...
Julia Ormond takes Audrey Hepburn's role fairly well, but none of these three can possibly compare to the excellence of the original cast.
SABRINA (1995) **** Good remake of the same-titled 1954 film starring Audrey Hepburn.
So, fire up the popcorn machine, get something cold to wash it down, and prepare to be dazzled by the lovely Julia Ormond, humored by a rascally, wavering Greg Kinnear, and perplexed by an unhappy, confused Harrison Ford.I first viewed this movie in the big theatre.
And to be quite frank: I thought mister Ford was the father, and he sure looked too old to be of any interest to a young woman like Sabrina, so for me the end of the movie was a bit of an anticlimax..
A remake of the hit romantic comedy made in the 1950's starring Audrey Hepburn, "Sabrina" is the kind of movie that would have seemed old-fashioned 70 years ago!!
Julia Ormond is good in the Audrey Hepburn role, but Harrison Ford is not a good romantic lead and puts no energy into his part.
I watched Sabrina in 1995 with the first girl I ever liked, even though it didn't work out, but I still love the movie and the memory from it.
'Sabrina' was originally, a charming film made by Billy Wilder & crew and starred Hollywood legends Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn.
This 'Sabrina' is an updated version directed by Sydney Pollack that stars Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear and Julia Ormond.
Harrison Ford & Julia Ormond are very good but Greg Kinnear is the best, his role as David is the funniest thing I've ever seen specially the part when he is sedated and Sabrina visits him.
I don't know how Audrey Hepburn Original movie was, but Modern Sabrina version is Great!!
I can't help but watching this over and over again whenever I have time to get around at home.Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond and Greg Kinner are all suits to their roles well.
In particular, Harrison Ford is much better than Humphrey Bogart and Julia Ormond definitely holds her own against Audrey Hepburn.
In general, it is a watchable and okay movie, but to be great it needed to be a little better in some things.About the characters, we have the main one - Sabrina (Julia Ormond) who, after spending 2 years in Paris, is seen in a different way by most people.
it is a brilliant movie i would recommend anyone who loves Greg Kinnear or Harrison Ford.
It was directed by Sydney Pollack, and stars Harrison Ford as Linus Larrabee, Julia Ormond as Sabrina and Greg Kinnear as David Larrabee.
I think Julia Ormond's performance is good but she can't compare Audrey Hepburn is her look.
I think Harrison Ford is as good as Bogart in the role of Linus.
As I agree that Humphrey Bogart is good, Harrison Ford is great as Linus, and Greg Kinnear totally outshined William Holden as David.
If you don't like the good old romantic movies, then don't watch this.
The 1995 remake of Sabrina is not the original 1954 movie.
You may even prefer it to the original.Julia Ormond is certainly not as intoxicating as Audrey Hepburn, but I believe her Sabrina is more interesting.