Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, the movie follows the lavish lifestyle of the ditsy Holly Golightly. Moving into her apartment building, the down-on-his-luck writer Paul immediately grows fond of Holly's quirky personality. Considering each other simply friends, Paul comes to one of Holly's wild parties and they journey through New York together. However, although Paul is falling for Holly, his circumstances seem to prevent it and besides she is oblivious to his affection. Slowly they fall farther apart with Holly's upcoming marriage to a wealthy man. In the end they do reconcile, embracing in the rain (of course). Holly has finally found a man who truly loves her and does not use her. The love story is an interesting one and Hepburn gives a lively performance. Henry Mancini's "Moon River" is a wonderful addition to this film. I would say however that this is not my favorite film with Hepburn because it is certainly hard to top Roman Holiday.

Needless to say, this is a film that I have a difficult time  making my mind up about. I will wholeheartedly admit that I enjoy Audrey Hepburn movies ranging from Roman Holiday and Sabrina to Charade and Wait Until Dark. Of all of her performances, Holly Golightly is arguably her most iconic. Perhaps this is because she played against her usual gracefully timid image or maybe it was  the memorable wardrobe put together by Givenchy. Breakfast at Tiffany's also has some wonderful supporting actors such as Patricia Neal, Martin Balsalm, Buddy Epsen, and an unfortunately badly cast Mickey Rooney. I think I would conclude that if Tiffany's was just composed of its beautiful opening sequence accompanied by Moon River and the final romantic moments, I would thoroughly enjoy it. However, some of the moments in the middle I suppose are not as memorable or downright strange, making this a far from perfect film. It is, however, still an enjoyable romantic comedy that showcases Audrey Hepburn and includes the best of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer.


4/5 Stars