Falling in Love 1984

      During shopping for Christmas, Frank and Molly run into each other.  This fleeting short moment will start to change their lives!!  They recognize each other months later riding on the train going home.  They have a good time together.  Both are married and Frank has two small children.  As they meet more and more often, their friendship is becoming the most precious thing in their lives!!

     There is a genuine chemistry between De Niro and Streep on the screen plus undeniable charisma.  And that is all there is in this movie??  There is not one memorable line of dialogue, not one inventive situation.  It wants to be a 1940’s romance and it makes that very clear in the beginning.  The first encounter between the characters is a meet cute scene?  They bump into each other at a bookstore, drop their packages and bump heads as they bend over to pick them up.  That is exactly how the meet cute works in this movie?  This film could have been a LOT better than meet cute!!  3* (This movie is OK)

106 min, Drama directed by Ulu Grosbard and written by Michael Cristofer with Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Harvey Keitel, Jane Kaczmarek, George Martin, David Clennon, Dianne Wiest, Victor Argo, Wiley Earl, Jesse Bradford, Chevi Colton, Richard Giza, Frances Conroy, James Ryan, Sonny Abagnale.

Note:  Imdb 6.5* out of 10* with 12,855 reviews, Metacritc 55 out of 100 with 12 critic reviews, Rotten tomatoes 58% with 12 critic reviews 63% with 5,000+ audience scores, Roger Ebert 2*.

Special Note:  The place where Frank Raftis and Molly Gilmore met was the commuter train line route between Manhattan, New York City and Westchester County, New York.  On about the time that the movie was released, Robert De Niro said about the teaming with Meryl Streep:  "I was always thinking of something I could do with Meryl, a play, a film, anything?  We had a reading and began to see possibilities in it."  Meryl Streep added “We both wanted something real, something awkward and crumpled."
 

Mistakes:  When trying on clothes prior to meeting Frank in NYC, Molly takes off the striped dress and tosses it in the pile on the bed.  In the next shot the dress is visible on her arm as she continues to look through clothes hanging in the closet.  When Frank is talking to Victor at a construction site, the camera crew is reflected twice in succession in plates of glass that they pass.  During several exterior Metro North run-by's, the film sequences are shown inverted.  Trains coming towards the camera should run on the viewers left (as trains and cars both drive on the right in the US) and the motorman's front window should be on the viewers left, as seen in the sequences shot in Grand Central Terminal.