Charade is one odd cookie of a movie.Audrey Hepburn is Regina Lampert, who upon returning to Paris from a holiday plans to ask her husband for a divorce. When she returns to their home though she finds it completely empty and is soon notified that her husband was found dead after someone threw him from a train.
Strangers show up at his funeral and test the body to make sure he's really dead. She then finds out from CIA agent Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Mathau) that her husband was part of a group of soldiers who buried money that they were supposed to give to the French Resistance during World War II. Mr. Lampert had recently gone back to the site and dug up the money for himself but no one could find it in his possessions. So now Regina and her new randomly-found friend Peter Joshua (Carey Grant) need to figure out where the money is so they can return it to the US before Mr. Lampert's fellow ex-soldiers hunt them down and take it from them.
Strangers show up at his funeral and test the body to make sure he's really dead. She then finds out from CIA agent Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Mathau) that her husband was part of a group of soldiers who buried money that they were supposed to give to the French Resistance during World War II. Mr. Lampert had recently gone back to the site and dug up the money for himself but no one could find it in his possessions. So now Regina and her new randomly-found friend Peter Joshua (Carey Grant) need to figure out where the money is so they can return it to the US before Mr. Lampert's fellow ex-soldiers hunt them down and take it from them.
If it sounds goofy with serious elements that aren't taken seriously, that's because it is. It's also all over the board.
Regina is threatened and intimidated by the ex-soldiers. But then for no apparent reason they don't scare her anymore. Then they follow suit and become more accommodating.
Regina trusts Peter even though she just met him. Then she thinks maybe she can't. Then again maybe she can. Then again, oh look there's Audrey Hepburn managing to be the most fashionable and out-of-nowhere stealthy person in Paris. (Well she was dressed by Givenchy.)
And after all this dated flightiness, I was ready to write it off. But then, in the last fifteen minutes, it becomes this suddenly gripping, really serious, really interesting film. It's as if the film was a balloon floating around Paris and suddenly someone jumped up on a chair, grabbed the string, tied a rock to it and grounded the darn thing. Really it was for the best.
Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: People who like their well-dressed screwball comedies to have sudden moments of gravitas and violence that doesn't involve animals or a man being hit in the crotch
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