The Audrey Hepburn Story

Many actresses have "played" the ingenue role, but Audrey Hepburn "was" that role. Modern audiences tend to be rather jaded about such things, and for good reason. No sooner do we discover some seemingly innocent yet precocious girl on the screen, who wins our hearts, but her mug is in the tabloids, all painted up like a tart, and involved in some sordid situation. They pretend they aren't role models, just actresses "playing" role models, but Audrey Hepburn was what she was both off-screen and on.

To the "youth" audience of today, with its Winona Ryders, and for that matter Jennifer Love Hewett, an Audrey Hepburn must seem as remote and irrelevant as a Shirley Temple or Mary Pickford. Yet Audrey personified something sadly missing in these starlets of today - something decent and respectable, unwilling to appear cheap and sleazy. Perhaps through this excellent portrayal of her life, younger audiences will discover that, at least to Audrey, an actress could be "more" than just another painted-up, tinsel-town puppet.

The characterization of Audrey, as portrayed by Hewett, is so perfect that one wonders how anyone like that could ever have pulled it off. To the minutest detail of every look, word and nuance of Audrey Hepburn, she gives a thoroughly convincing rendition. Too bad some of the depth didn't rub off along with mastering the surfaces. The only critical comment is that the film was obviously made for television, with rather jarring breaks to allow for commercials. These are not there for the recorded version, and hence just when we get in the mood for one scene, we are jolted into another. The result seems hacked up and butchered. That's a minor complaint for an otherwise outstanding film, however.

Let me begin by saying that I am extremely biased when it comes to Audrey Hepburn therefore it is perfectly logical from my point of view that no one can play Audrey Hepburn but Audrey Hepburn. Miss Hewitt is (its been said before many times) too full when it comes to her bosom and she didn't flash a huge smile like Audrey did. Audrey's smile could light up a whole room (even better than Julia!) and Hewitt could barely light a candle in a corner so to speak. Her hair was pathetically streaked in the "Tiffany" scenes whereas Audrey's streaks blended perfectly with her natural brown tresses. Also, Audrey's hair was butched at the Oscar ceremony... Hewitt's was the same as it was during the filming of "Roman Holiday". As for the rest of the cast, Emmy Rossum was much better as young Audrey than Hewitt. Frances Fischer (of "Titanic" fame... she was Kate Winslet's self-righteous mother) was believable as Audrey's mother, Baroness Edda Van Heemstra. Eric McCormick was too contemporary to play Mel Ferrer, plus he didn't look a thing like him; the same applies to Gabriel Macht who played Bill Holden but Michael J. Burg captured the essence of Truman Capote to the button. The most embarrassing of all was Ray Landry as Humphrey Bogart; he had way too much makeup on him to look meatier where Bogie was a skinny, ugly railing. Plus, his accent was pathetically forced like he was trying way too hard to impersonate Bogie and he still couldn't do a good job. The film in short, should never have been made... no one can play Audrey Hepburn but Audrey Hepburn!

Despite the other comments on this page -apparently submitted by the Jennifer Love Hewitt Appreciation Society (or the Denial of Terrible Movies society), there can be no doubt that "The Audrey Hepburn Story" is one of THE WORST movies ever made. Yes, no one could ever recapture the magic that was Audrey Hepburn, but for God's sake, why did they even try? From the shonky knockoffs of Givenchy gowns, to the blatant errors in the film recreations, to the extremely poor Bogart impersonator, this movie is so bad in fact, is is grotesquely fascinating.

And at the centre of it all we have Miss Hewitt herself, all stiff grey wigs (who designed THEM?!), phoney Continental accent and smug little smile. Honey, that your bust is a little larger than Audrey's should be the LEAST of your worries!!!

I shudder to think that future generations might stumble upon this cinematic travesty (OK, I know it was made for television) and take it as a serious tribute to the lovely Miss Hepburn. They will surely wonder what we all saw in her. But that will never happen. Audrey's movies will be remembered forever- long after this Z-grade piece of rubbish is consigned to pop-culture oblivion.

Take a bow, filmmakers. You've managed to reduce the life of one of the screen's most beloved icons to Audrey's one-note obsession with finding her father (how's *that* for a fresh idea!) and producing offspring.

To the sadly misguided Hewitt fans (you know who you are) who took it upon themselves to insult Audrey Hepburn in a vain attempt to make JLH look better, you ought to get your heads examined.

JLH you should be ashamed of yourself!!!! (I'm ashamed of myself too, that I actually took the time to write this thing for such a poorly acted, written and directed- not to mention every other aspect of production- waste of videotape.)

I do not know much about Audrey Hepburn. All I have seen was My Fair Lady, but there seemed to be something missing in Hewitt's performance. I enjoyed the movie but something was always off about the way she portrayed Audrey.

I must admit that after reading all of the reviews to be horrified by JLH presentation as Audrey Hepburn. But I was somewhat surprised. I didn't think that she was the best actress available, I think Emmy Rossum should have played Audrey the entire movie, but JLH does an alright job. She doesn't do the perfect accent, but then I don't think that any actress could do the accent perfectly.

I never knew of the horrible things that happened to Audrey during her life and this movie made me cry, especially during Emmy's scenes. I have such respect for Audrey Hepburn now. The work she did made such a difference and it's sad that she is gone now.