Julia Ormond faced one of the great challenges of her career when she tried to re-create Audrey Hepburn's title role in the 1995 remake of 1954's Sabrina. Happily, Ormond performed admirably, and while she may not have the same gamine charm of Hepburn, she makes the role her own. In fact, her transformation from mousy girl to sophisticated young woman is actually more dramatic in this updated version. The basic plot is the same--chauffeur's daughter falls in love with the son of the rich household, only to be wooed away by the older brother for business purposes--but it has been entertainingly modernized: The head of the Larrabee household is the strong matriarch (Nancy Marchand); Sabrina goes to Paris to work with a photographer instead of going to cooking school (although that means the wonderful "new egg" scene of the original had to be ditched); David's (Greg Kinnear) character has been toned down and made more sympathetic; and Humphrey Bogart's revolutionary plastic has become the flattest TV screen ever made. Lauren Holly does a fine job playing Elizabeth Tyson, David's fiancée. If you watch this for its own worth--instead of comparing it to the original--this will prove to be a terrific lighthearted romantic comedy. --Jenny Brown
2.
Sydney Pollack directs this whimsical remake of the 1954 romantic comedy by Billy Wilder. Greg Kinnear and Harrison Ford deftly portray the two wealthy Larrabee brothers, who end up fighting over the affections of their chauffeur’s daughter. When Sabrina (Julia Ormond) originally attempts to win over David Larrabee (Greg Kinnear), the younger of the two brothers, and the notorious playboy whom her father works for, he barely even knows she's alive. To help get her mind off David, Sabrina's dad sends her on a trip to Paris, where she trains to become a fashion photographer. In Europe, the mousy young girl blossoms into a beautiful woman before returning to the Larrabee estate on Long Island. At first David doesn't recognize the altered Sabrina. Once he does, however, he falls hard, which jeopardizes his impending marriage to Elizabeth, a wealthy doctor. This turn of events greatly concerns his older, more serious brother, Linus (Harrison Ford), who's counting on the marriage to cement a merger between his company and a business owned by Elizabeth's rich father. So Linus decides to woo Sabrina, hoping she'll fall for him and forget his brother. However, the scheme backfires when Linus himself begins to find the charming Sabrina irresistible.
3.
Love is a funny thing. Especially when Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinnear form the warmest, winningest romantic triangle ever. Directed by Sydney Pollack (Tootsie), Sabrina shimmers like a fairy tale come true. Ford plays Linus Larrabee, a busy tycoon who has no room for love in his appointment book. But when a romance between his playboy brother (Kinnear) and Sabrina (Ormond), daughter of the family chauffeur, threatens one of Linus' business deals, the CEO clears his schedule for some ruthlessness. He courts Sabrina, intending to drop her when the deal closes. Will "the world's only living heart donor" discover his heart? Of course! But, like the best journeys, the fun isn't just the destination, it's the getting there.
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