WATCH NOW
“Only You,” Directed by Norman Jewison is the exact kind of romance that we would barely be able to find today in Hollywood. It makes no sense at all, and is set in the gorgeous Italian regions of Venice and Positano. The story is light and true fantasy, and filled with amazing scenery, and who could forget a pair of stunning kissers. For heaven’s sake, the actors are infect good at kissing and the movie being in Rome is just the cherry on top. This movie was once made for stars like Rossano Brazzi, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn and many other golden era stars. Or how about Clark Gable with Sophia Loren? Many argue that modern day actors such as Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. lack the childlike wonder, or faith to succeed in portraying such innocent lovers euros. But guess what? They actually do, as the two of them completely shed the baggage of our cynical age and provide us with a pair of lovers who are actually ready to give it all. Health to fools in love!
Faith’s story begins with her being 11 years old. Together with her cousin Kate, they used a Ouija board to ask who she will marry, and the answer was loud and clear. They revealed that she will marry a man named Damon Bradley. A few years later, a fortune teller claimed the same. This kind of coincidence is hard to dismiss, and “Damon Bradley” serves as a psychic marker for the aptly named Faith.
Years pass by without the sight of Damon Bradley. Ultimately, Faith, portrayed by Marisa Tomei, gets engaged to a podiatrist (John Benjamin Hickey). Finally on the day before her wedding, she gets a call from a friend of the groom’s that warms will not make it due to him being on his way to Venice. Obviously, the man’s name was Damon Bradley, and now Faith ditches all her wedding arrangements to chase after him. Of course, she decides to fly to Venice.
In the film, Peter (that’s the name of the guy who has made the call) is played by Robert Downey, Junior. One of the questions that the film tries to answer is whether he is actually Damon Bradley. What is fascinating is that he may be, even if he isn’t which is a paradox that you will understand after watching the film. Once Faith and Peter fall in love in Venice, or later when they proceed to further their affair in Rome, or later still when it almost disintegrates in Positano, it matters hardly whether he is or isn’t.
Needless to say, Diane Drake’s screenplay is full of obstacles that the lovers have to contend with, not the least of which is Faith’s intense reliance on the childhood prophecy. This is all downright fabrication of the worst kind, and therein lies the entertainment. There’s such a thing as the Idiot Plot, where the characters are defiant towards logic, and something we could call, with apologies to Jewison’s 1987 hit, the “Moonstruck” Plot. In the latter case, we also unfathomably defy logic but for completely different reasons, which we wouldn’t complain about because it’s entertaining.
With “Only You,” we get two people who are destined to fall in love with each other and live together happily ever. They both know it, their friends know it, and we know it as well. Although it does seem like they will fall in love with each other, there is a certain type of confidence we have that proves otherwise, and that’s why the movie is interesting to watch. My personal favorite part about this movie is the way the characters so stubbornly refrain from doing so, especially in the beautifully captured Italian locations that proved to be enticing to Sven Nykvist.
Particularly, in regards to this performance, I can list various young Hollywood stars with severe angst who are accomplished actors, but who would not be able to attempt coming close to the work Downey and Tomei have done in this movie. There is craft involved, as there is inspiration, but what struck me deeper was an undetermined sense of good will. Downey and Tomei seem happy in their being here, and as if they are happier together than apart. If one is automatically responding to a storyline to strongly, then that is certainly what we must be able to have present. I have not read in the supermarket papers that they are already “linked in real life,” so their chemistry stems from acting, I must assume. That’s all the more remarkable. (Or maybe not; many real life couples seem annoyed with one another on screen sometimes.) Norman Jewison, who directs “Only You,” the same gent who retired from the kind of direction for which he is now rather famous, just as his movies were going out of style, so for him it was perhaps too late.
He worked with Doris Day in The Thrill of It All (1963) where James Garner also starred, and in Send Me No Flowers (1964) with Rock Hudson. I hope Puerto Ricans will be forgiving due to my ignorance when I dare to say that in Only You, Marisa Tomei possesses some of the warm, sunny demeanor that is associated with Doris Day. Like most people, I suspect Doris Day is out of fashion these days, as is the picture “Only You”, but just because it’s not done anymore doesn’t mean it has no value.
To watch more movies like (Only You (1994)) visit 123Movies.
Also Watch for more movies like:
