Diary entries forTwo for the Road
Two for the Road
Stanley Donen was ever so familiar with directing ecstatically pleasing films - Singin' in the Rain and On the Town reeked of that charismatic tone. In Two for the Road he directs Audrey Hepburn (in one of her final great roles) and Albert Finney - a couple in a cute and sometimes sour relationship. It has the essence of a road movie, and the pulse of a romantic dramedy. It isn't just the journey on the road that works the most, but it's the portrayal of a relationship molding and crumbling over time that is so goddamn engaging. Through their ups and downs is Donen's charm delivering sweet and humorous characters, and underneath, presenting an emotional layer of couple therapy.
Two for the Road
it’s a beautiful movie, don’t get me wrong. i love audrey, i love that this is a better version of the before trilogy, but it’s hard to watch a movie that tells you “they’re both in the wrong” when the woman is a beautiful angel and the man is a cheating asshole. i see nothing wrong with joanna’s behavior, and yet mark is shown as a truly mean, careless, greedy man as time passes. it’s arguably a better and more personal film when it focuses on them in the same place at different points in time—as someone who’s returned to the same places at different points in my life, it hits harder.
