Dolce novembre

I'm a huge Sandy Dennis fan. Her acting was disparaged by unkind critics, but to me acting is less about doing than about being. Sandy was a great human being and she shines in the few films I have had a chance to see.

This one I saw decades ago and remember only the basic outline, and I remember loving it utterly. It has the intimacy of chamber music. The unusual plot intrigued me very much. Why don't they show it more often? I also liked the fact that for a change, the main character is a woman who knows what she wants, and is not just a feather in a man's cap.

Today I read the sad news that Anthony Newley had died, on April 14, 1999. It recalled to mind one of my favorite movies: Sweet November. It is a movie which the New York Times obituary did not even bother to mention but one which touched me. I saw the movie in college in 1968 and have not had the chance to see it since but I have never forgotten it. As the other user comment on this site indicates, it is a tender, moving, love story and is probably primarily a "woman's movie." But I am a man and I have to say I loved and enjoyed it. Over the years I have mentioned and recommended this movie to friends and,sadly, invariably they have never heard of it. That is too bad: I highly recommend Sweet November; it is well worth the trouble of locating a copy and taking a look!

Sweet November is a charming enough quirk fest than can sometimes grate, cause a chuckle, and move you in the span of 5 minutes. You're always sort of on guard when you watch this movie. It all starts with a stuffy box company worker named Charlie (singer Anthony Newley) gets pushed out of his driver's test when a quirky young woman named Sara (Sandy Dennis) asks him for some answers. Instead of being appalled and angry at this woman, Charlie hangs out with her for a little while and discovers her to be another in a long line of Manic Pixie Dream Girls who could only exist in Hollywood fiction. They agree to continue to spend time together only for Charlie to realize that Sara wants him to be her man of the month. She has a habit of dating men for a month, trying to improve them and then releasing them into the wild. But what will happen if they fall madly in love?

Sweet November sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Sandy Dennis' performance ranges from shrill to charming to bizarre to adorable to heartbreaking and back again. It's an odd performance, but I can't say I've ever seen anything like it. Anthony Newley does better than expected as Charlie, but there is something off puttingly smug about him at times that makes you want to slap him.

What starts out as an amusing rom com tries to go into melodramatic weepie territory towards the end and it doesn't really work. I'll give them this much - at least it doesn't end with an unearned death to tug at the viewer's heartstrings. In fact, the film ends on an impressively mature and thoughtful note that took me by surprise.

Maybe I'm weird but this film really struck a chord with me. What a tender and moving little love story..definitely a woman's movie, romantic and sweet. Sandy Dennis is at her quirky best in the role of Sara Dever...and Anthony Newley at his most attractive and wonderful as charming Charlie Blake is a perfect casting match.There is terrific music by Leslie Bricusse, a fine performance by Theodore Bikel as a crusading vegetarian signmaker....but mostly there is this incredible growth of love between Sara and Charlie that is a delight to watch from the first frame to the last..and an incredible bittersweet ending that has me in tears EVERY time I see it. This movie SINGS to me.A lost and forgotten gem of a play made into a movie Sweet November is a must see for anyone who has ever been in love ...and lost. Don't miss this one!!!! It is a definite KEEPER!

I never intended watching Sweet November. I'd never even heard of it. I was flicking through the channels and it just leaped out and grabbed me. I don't what it was, the wonderful, light, witty dialogue that reminded me of Noel Coward at his best, or the tangible chemistry between Sandy Dennis and Anthony Newley. Whatever it was I just couldn't stop watching. It was like snuggling up with someone you love on a windswept winters night or shuffling through fallen autumn leaves. Watching this film filled me with a wonderful inner glow and I loved it.