Simply Perfect

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

For the first three quarters of this update of "The Guardsman", everything is fine. But once the plot wraps up, the film continues needlessly and totally goes off track. If it wasn't for stars Maggie Smith and Christopher Plummer, the film might sink into total boredom, but the likability of their characters and their individual charm makes the film much more tolerable.Smith and Plummer take over the famous roles originated by Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt years before in their only appearance together on screen. She is a film producer searching for the perfect leading man and he is her stage actor husband upset that she considers him to be wrong for the part. She also makes him slightly jealous by looking at only the hunkiest of men, so Plummer decides to disguise himself as an Italian "from the north" who happens to be blonde but obviously not as young as the otherwise actors she considered. It is obvious that she knows the ruse being pulled on her even though she never verbalizes it. Smith gives a soft but sly performance, playing one of her most gently characters, while Plummer gets to chew the scenery a bit, especially in the final quarter which makes little sense. Smith has a sweet moment when she reveals to the disguised Plummer that a woman never reveals the truth about what she thinks of a man in bed, whether it be good or bad.The stage roots of this story are made all the more obvious because of the fact that Smith and Plummer seem more theatrical than cinematic. Toss in theater legend Adolph Green as Plummer's co-conspirator pal for further evidence of that. Elke Sommer is relatively over the top as the film within the film's leading lady. I enjoyed it overall in spite of some slow moving areas and the situation which carries the plot long after Plummer's facade has been revealed.

I got this as a Maggie Smith nut - I've seen her on stage a number of times, and have been craving a film from her which matches the comic intensity which I've seen in the theatre.Alas, this bizarre misfire doesn't give her a great deal to do. The other people have summed up the plot, so I'll just say that as a romantic comedy, this just doesn't cut the mustard.The lighting (in the copy I saw, at least) looks more film noir than romcom - everything is dark and gloomy, reminiscent of Gordon Willis's cinematography for the office scenes in The Godfather.Christopher Plummer has the kind of role John Barrymore used to play in his talkies - the cliché of the egotistical, verse-spouting actor. He does it very well, but his face is too dour to really charm as the hammy romantic lead. He does a good job with the young Italian, and is quiet funny there... but the dialogue and gags are lame.And harking back to the old romcoms of the golden age, which often featured studio recreations of European capitals: alas, Budapest in the mid-80s looks dreadfully bleak - presumably the funding came from there, and part of the deal was to shoot it in the Hungarian capital. It looks terribly depressing and grey.Maggie Smith looks lovely (when you can see her - that shadowy cinematography!) but even she can't weave the straw of the dialogue into gold (something she's usually able to do). California Suite, and bits of Murder by Death, seem to be the only film to really show here sophisticated comedienne stuff off on film.Lily in Love, then, is one for total Maggie completists only (like me).(By the way, the best 'lost' Maggie Smith film is definitely 'Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing' - seek it out, it's on DVD.)

The burning question here is should we call it irony or chuzpah to rip off a celebrated play by the equally celebrated Hungarian playwright, Ferenc Molnar - the play in question, The Guardsman, was a triumph for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontane both on stage and screen - and then contrive to have the central device - a deception - occur in Hungary when it could have occurred anywhere. The Lunts filmed The Guardsman in 1931 so this outfit probably figured that by 1984 no one was going to notice that Maggie Smith and Christopher Plummer were standing in for Alfred and Lynne. The plot is lightest gossamer; as Molnar wrote it an egomaniacal actor (is there any other kind) was so consumed with jealousy of being cuckolded by his actress wife that he assumed the identity of a guardsman in order to seduce her. This time around the man is still an actor but the wife in now a playwright and is adamant that the leading man in her new screenplay is not for her husband. Cue the husband disguising himself as an Italian actor, seducing his own wife etc. There are some nice bitchy 'actorish/showbiz' lines and Smith and Plummer are up to snuff as the two leads but Adolph Green acts as badly as he writes and the rest of the cast are nowhere. Ho-hum to mediocre.

First off, let me say that I believe Dame Maggie Smith to be the classiest actress in cinema. Her eyes are mesmerizing - she can look so coy and yet still patronize with a little curl in her grin. She certainly does not disappoint in this tale of comedic deception and romance.The set-up is cute...Christopher Plummer plays Fitz Wynn, a truly talented but overly-satisfied stage actor who wants to star in a new movie written by his wife, Lily (Smith). Lily doesn't feel her Fitz is right for the part, and explains to him why and what she's looking for in the role. Fitz proceeds to orchestrate his own transformation (with the reluctant assistance of his agent) into Roberto Terranova, a blonde Italian who seems to be exactly what Lily wants. His deception seems successful, but does Lily want Roberto for more than just her movie?It is at this point where the movie struggles - the initial delicious tension goes bland with redundancies; and although some wit is regained at the climax, the movie struggles through some sort of resolution, leaving us wondering just when the credits will roll?Plummer does fine - his 'tantrums' seem contrived, but I don't really blame him. Smith is as witty as a lady can be with this material, which seems so dated now - especially the music (groan). As for the rest of the cast, Elke Sommer is totally wasted, and the remainders are unrecognizable and unimpressive.In summary, the sole reason to watch *Lily in Love* is to watch Maggie Smith. She is graceful, she is radiant, and she is the perpetual professional. Rating 5/10 for the film :: 10/10 for Dame Maggie Smith