I am a regular film watcher and took the opportunity recently to buy the Audrey Hepburn boxed set which included Breakfast at Tiffany's which is oft quoted as a 'classic'. Having watched the film with my wife last night, when the film ended we both looked at each other in absolute puzzlement - classic what classic?. This is not the first time I have been disappointed with that epithet when applied to cinema. Firstly, I found the screenplay to be cluttered and wordy for no real reason. Audrey Hepburns lines in some cases are verbose and vacuous. The casting director should not have been paid - Mickey Rooney was completely miscast and to cast Buddy Ebsen as the husband was the height of stupidity as the character was completely unbelievable as his age in relation to Hepburns character was way to old. The acting was not up to par in any sense - Peppard was wooden in the extreme; Ebsen was poor and elicited no empathy from the viewer and finally Rooney was farcical and embarrassing. At the end of the film we then watched the 'Making of a Classic' feature which is on the DVD it was full of self congratulatory claptrap most of which came from the director Blake Edwards. He clearly felt that the party scene was one of his best!! Watch it for yourself and you decide. As for his admission that Mickey Rooney was miscast, that's a bit rich when he could clearly have redirected the actor - that is his job after all. In short I found the whole film a great disappointment and if you do watch it, do it with open eyes and an open mind and don't believe some of the sycophantic 'classic' reviews.
Review of Breakfast at Tiffany's
