‘Oldies But Goodies’ Aren’t So Great - Ask ‘Sabrina’

Those who have read “A Catcher in the Rye,” a book set in the late 1940s, will remember how the protagonist Holden Caufield hated the movies. “Sabrina” is a remake of an Audrey Hepburn film from that era, and after seeing it, I can understand Holden’s take on cinema.

“Sabrina” reflects both the fantasy and the fallacies of old-fashioned movies, and - at least for this generation - it seems more hokey than anything else.

Sabrina Fairchild is the daughter of a chauffeur for the glamorous Larabee family. Since childhood, she has had an obsessive crush on the younger Larabee brother (Greg Kinnear), an immature playboy named Dave.

The older Larabee brother, Linus (Harrison Ford), is a no-nonsense businessman who runs the family enterprises with his mother, Maude. Sabrina pitifully watches the Larabees’ glamorous parties - and Dave’s escapades - from a tree above the garage where she lives.

As the movie opens, Sabrina is packing for a trip to Paris, where she’ll spend a year or two as an assistant for a fashion magazine. There, Sabrina supposedly “finds herself,” gets a haircut and stylish clothes and learns that Dave has become engaged. His fiance is a doctor whose family owns a company Linus would like to merge with his own.

So, Sabrina returns. She is so sophisticated that Dave doesn’t recognize her. Nevertheless, he’s enchanted. Dave’s fascination with Sabrina poses a problem for Linus’ merger, so Linus schemes to steal Sabrina’s heart, fly her to Paris, then dump her.

After a bizarre and utterly unbelievable twist of events, the merger is saved, Dave gets a clue and Linus ends up with Sabrina in Paris. And they all live happily ever after.

At first, I expected good things from “Sabrina” because the action moved right along and the funny parts were clever and well-timed. But when Sabrina came home, the dialogue got corny and the acting got bad (not that Kinnear was ever competent).

The self Sabrina found in Paris didn’t seem very formidable or interesting; it’s hard to believe she never realized that both Larabee brothers were total jerks.

With the exception of the line where Ford says, “It’s the ‘90s,” it may as well have been the ‘50s in “Sabrina.” The old-money atmosphere of the film is reminiscent of old-movie escapism.

Also, the advent of feminism has not been acknowledged. Sabrina, supposedly the charming heroine, has absolutely no mind of her own; Linus and Dave, the romantic interests, use her for whatever purpose is at hand. After Linus callously breaks her heart, it takes all of 24 hours and a two-second apology for Sabrina to take him back.

For years, older people have been saying “They don’t make them like they used to.” With “Sabrina,” director Sydney Pollack seems to have tried to do just that. There is even a tearful scene in a room dark except for one mysterious ray of light that shines across the heroine’s tragic eyes, a classic old-movie touch.

After seeing “Sabrina,” young people will likely be glad movies now try to avoid the phoniness of old-fashioned films.

Grade: D