In some ways, I enjoyed "Reunion at Fairborough"...and in other ways, it reminded me of the expression "you can never go back". In other words, it left me with very mixed feelings.
When the film begins, Carl (Robert Mitchum) is feeling blue. He's been forced to retire, his wife had left him and he didn't feel much of a sense of purpose in his life. But when he gets word that his old bomber group from WWII is having a reunion back in England where they were based, he seems to get a new lease on life. Before he goes, however, he wants to find an old buddy and take him along with him. This won't be easy as Jiggs (Red Buttons) is an alcoholic and doesn't seem interested in the trip. But Carl is insistent and he takes his old friend with him.
Once in England, Carl is in for a huge surprise when he looks up his old sweetheart. It seems that Sally (Deborah Kerr) had his baby long ago...and never bothered to tell him. That baby grew up and died...but she produced a daughter.... Carl's granddaughter. But this is not one big happy family reunion. Sally doesn't seem that eager to reignite old passions and the granddaughter is a very idealistic AND obnoxious teen...too obnoxious to make her character likable or relatable. She also is incredibly inconsistent and needlessly rude. What's to come of all this family bonding?
There were some very nice performances in the film...particularly by Mitchum and Barry Morse. But it also seemed to be a mistake including so much of the granddaughter and not enough of her grandmother, Sally. Considering this was the fourth pairing of Mitchum and Kerr, you are confused why this so often seems to take a backseat in the story. More Kerr and less granddaughter would have made for a more enjoyable story. Still, it IS Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr...so it is still a nice time-passer.
By the way, I didn't mind that the script had a granddaughter who was ideologically so dissimilar to her grandfather. It was more how obnoxious and one-dimensional the character was that annoyed me. Her character just wasn't written well and proved unnecessary to the story.
