Kathleen Rohr

"Falling in Love" is a waste of two huge talents, Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep. The script rarely allows them to utter a complete sentence. Their characters mumble and stumble their way through their brief romance without any sincere conversation about their growing affection, or any sustained conversation at all. The Streep character's husband is another walking cut-out, with no obvious worthiness of her affection. The DeNiro character's family is the most human and appealing. The movie is presumably based on "Brief Encounter," a first-rate enduring 1945 movie, starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. The 1974 Richard Burton - Sophia Loren version is a lesser disappointment than the DeNiro-Streep version, but it doesn't come close to the original, a glowing tribute to the 1936 stage play "Still Life" by Noel Coward. Incidentally, you can listen to the play. Just Google "chesterton radio drama youtube". It should show up early in the list.