Love Story

'Love Story' is not your typical romance film, although it is a story about a boy and girl from different backgrounds who fall in love. Jenny is an intellectual music major with a passion to travel, and Oliver's parents are well-to-do, and he enjoys sports. It seems like an unlikely match, but the two of them hit it off and travel through the perils of relationships. It is a touching story, and the direction and coordination of some of the scenes is amazing. (Particularly the scene with Oliver sitting outside in the playing field and narrating the story is a classic moment in this film, and it is possibly one of the most memorable scenes in film history.) If you have never seen this film, you should. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship can relate to it, but if you are a sensitive person and cry in nearly every film you have ever been to, keep a full box of tissues handy.

Very pleasant surprised by this wonderful and brilliantly acted "Love Story". Owkay, the title captures everything of the movie. You instantly know what it is about. But that doesn't bother. This movie is almost twice my age and before I started watching this movie, I wasn't sure if I would like it. After all, I want a movie to be recognizable (at least with a movie about a love story, I'm not talking about movies in general. You can't expect a movie like "The Godfather" to be recognizable) and the acting has to be real. With certain movies from a couple of decennia ago, I sometimes have the feeling the acting isn't real, you're all the time aware of the fact that they are acting, and I think a movie can't have that.

The acting here was amazing. Ali MacGraw as well as Ryan O'Neal were both excellent in their roles as Jenny and Oliver. I thought both fathers were quite good as well, specially Jenny's father Phil, performed by John Marley, who surely deserved his Academy Award Nomination. The music was also terrific in this movie. I think it's, beside the acting, one of the most important points to make this movie timeless.

Unfortunately, this movie became the only success of the leading actors. It could have been the beginning of a brilliant acting career, but "Love Story" became the highlight of their career. To conclude I can only repeat that "Love Story" is a brilliant and timeless romantic classic!

Watch this movie! 9/10

I had never seen Love Story nor read the book. However, I vividly remember its popularity when I was a child. Now that I'm "all grown up" I cannot believe that 1970 America got mesmerized by such schmaltz.

For Love Story to garner a Best Picture nomination must mean that 1970 was a weak year for films. Others have panned O'Neal and McGraw's acting. I thought it was adequate... nothing to do backflips over, but adequate...certainly NOT Oscar winning. I've always liked Ryan O'Neal's acting. Someone else should have played Jenny

I can take the romance, the young love, grievous feelings. I've been there but what's most irksome about this film are the gaps in the story line. I had NO IDEA what the hell Jenny was dying from. Out of nowhere Oliver graduates from law school... did we ever see him crack a book. The screenplay is lacking in my opinion. This is certainly not the greatest love story ever told... at least not on film anyway.

Still, it's enjoyable and worth seeing if nothing else than to see Tommy Lee Jones in an early role and also for the beautiful winter scenery.

Rating: 7/10 or **1/2

I somehow saw this in the theater during it's initial release as it must have been the allure of Ali McGraw and I've seen it probably three times since over the years to make sure I didn't miss something about this film but I don't think I did. How could this small film have been nominated for eight Academy Awards? It was nominated for most of the biggest awards in Best Picture, Best Director for Arthur Hiller, Best Actor in Ryan O'Neal, Best Actress for Ali McGraw, Best Supporting Actor for John Marley and Best Screenplay for author Eric Segal as well as Best Score and Best song for Francis Lai. Well, Lai was a deserved nomination and in fact won those two Oscars but the rest of the nominations were a cinematic joke. The novella story by Segal never had enough material to be a full length feature film. He could have at least added a mindless car chase or a flying saucer scene to the screenplay to give the film some depth. This was McGraw's only third film and her follow up role in The Getaway with husband Steve McQueen was a far better performance. After that her career stalled and she never made of film of note again. Ryan O'Neal had made a couple of minor films before and was most noted for his television roles and he like McGraw turned in a stiff, wooden performance here and there was no on screen chemistry between them. John Marley and Ray Milland were good in supporting roles. Director Arthur Hiller had made the leap from television to feature films with a string of mediocre movies until moderate success with the Out of Towners before Love Story and after would see more moderate success in comedies in The Hospital, The In-Laws and Silver Streak but any success he ever had were in comedies. This as a serious film tries to be so serious it goes overboard. I would give this a 6.0 for good music and set direction and for sentimental reasons for once having had a teen aged crush on Ali McGraw.

Oliver is a Havard law student Jock type who's father is a millionaire and Jennifer is a poor Radcliffe student working her way through college. When they meet they develop a relationship that eventually turns to love. When they decide to marry, Oliver is cut off by his father and the two are forced to become poor as they try to study and work at the same time. The two find that their love is strong enough to stand even the biggest tests of life.

A massive hit and Oscar winner in the 70's it is easy to forget this film now, simply because it is so dated, flawed and unrelatable that I found it amusing but never emotional or moving. The plot is a straightforward and goes just where you expect it to. However that is not a major problem if the film had managed to be emotionally involving and powerful – neither of which I found it to do.

The biggest reason for this is the characters and the actors. Oliver is a spoilt rich kid who has `issues' with his multimillion father only wanting the best for him. It doesn't help that O'Neal can't act and delivers even the most touching scene like he was made of wood. Meanwhile Jenny is rude and pretentious and quite an unpleasant person. McGraw is pretty but I couldn't have cared less if a bus had hit her character in the first 10 minutes, such was the empathy that she made me feel with her.

The music is awful – it is shamelessly tearing jerking and written to create emotion where none is forthcoming from the action onscreen. It runs constantly and got to the point where it grated on me. The film is not without merit though, bits of it are funny and the basic love story had potential to be a professional weepy.

Instead it is flat and uninvolving and is simply a Hollywood bit of fluff that left me cold despite a few chuckles or smiles. It may have done good box office but if recent summers have taught us anything, it's that that is not an indication of a good film.