By Amanda Ack, Film Critic
Holly Golightly is the quintessential manic pixie dream girl. Think about it: she’s cute, she’s quirky, and, most importantly, she’s just damaged enough to be interesting. It seems that in adapting Truman Capote’s novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s into the 1961 film of the same name, director Blake Edwards created something far ahead of its time. The trouble is that for all its eccentric charm, the film is just too squeaky-clean to make an impact.
The film centers on the aforementioned Holly (Audrey Hepburn at her bubbly best), a flirty, flighty society girl who lives in a threadbare apartment and wears all the best clothes – a lifestyle funded by the wealthy men with whom she associates. Her carefree existence is thrown out of balance, however, when she meets Paul (George Peppard), an aspiring writer with a similarly well-funded life. Just as their romance develops, Holly’s past is revealed, and both she and George find themselves thrown for a loop.
It’s certainly a sweet story, but therein lies the problem. While the film doesn’t necessarily ignore the seedier parts of Holly’s life, it does tend to gloss over them. In a 1968 interview with Playboy, Capote called the character an “American geisha” – not a prostitute, but definitely intentional in her efforts to extract money from men. The film, on the other hand, suggests that she doesn’t quite understand what she’s doing, or what the men expect of her. It’s not exactly a major change, but it sanitizes the story in such a way that any opportunity for painting a darker picture is lost.
Thankfully, the presence of Hepburn helps make up for the story’s lack of depth. Sure, she’s miscast – after all, Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the role – but she’s utterly delightful, hitting both comic and tragic notes with the greatest of ease. What’s more, her chemistry with the drily charming Peppard is palpable, and the two make an onscreen pair that’s impossible not to root for.
Still, despite the lovely performances given by the two leads, there’s definitely something missing from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Don’t get me wrong – I love it. It has a very special place in my DVD collection. Whenever I watch it though, I often find myself thinking of the darker, more compelling film it could have been.
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