Il pretendente

Romantic movie without the drama, which should have been if

Unfortunately the former version from 1974 (tt3749338) set the niveau so high, that this version simply could have not reached it.

The male lead was not a good choice, at the end I was asking myself if he is an actor?

I gave a star for being Hungarian movie, because I am a Hungarian.

I gave an additional star, because it roughly follows the written story of one of my favourite writer.

I gave a star for the female lead's performance.

And lastly I gave a star because at least they are tryiing to make movies like this.

I you have not seen the 1974 version, you will have nice evening.

Sometimes you take a chance on a movie and it turns out great. This was a great and simple romantic movie.

On or about the 1920s in some obviously.foreign land...Ida has come of age and her dad has no idea what to do with her. Her dad wants to get remarried and needs Ida out of the house to do so. Ida can't go back to the convent (I guess where she was stashed before) so her dad goes with marriage and posts an ad for someone to marry Ida. Apparently, the marriage doesn't have to be forever because, at this time, divorce is a sufficient reason for Ida to live alone. Dad picks Csaba and, while seemingly polite, Ida knows very little about him. But they agree on a year of fake marriage for both their purposes.

It was a well-written and tight script and I enjoyed almost everything they chose. As mentioned, the couple's sarcastic maid was hysterical... and I enjoyed the non modern reactions to most everything. Ida is a delight. The actress is beautiful and she is meant to be nieve (since she just came out of a convent) and she is, but not in a really cliched way - in a very pure and organic way.

The only real problems for me was that the dubbing was horrible and the voices sounded odd. Also, I was not 100% sure about why things were happening. It is like I needed a refresher video on the social standards of the time.

But I would recommend it.

The version I saw of this movie at Prime Video this weekend was dubbed in English, so captions or subtitles weren't needed. Lip movement wise it was a good dubbing job, yet the voices of everyone seemed odd and too much like they were reading the dialogue, which of course they were.

Ida was sent to a convent as a young girl after her mother died. When she was supposed to get out, she was told she must stay another year to teach. Now that year is over, she is being told by the Mother Superior she needs to join their order and stay forever. They are interested in the dowry they will receive from her wealthy father, since she will never marry as a nun, and her father does not want her back home.

She does not want to and fortunately finds a way to get tossed out. Her father is shocked to see her and she is shocked to see what is going on in his house. Wild women dancing on the tables, and her father has a fiance who is a year younger than Ida. Ida says she cannot stay there under those conditions, so her father places and ad in the newspaper to marry her off. He is choosy about who he picks, however, and tells her she can get a divorce after the first year of marriage, and then can live alone. As a single woman who never married, she could not do so.

She ends up marrying an artist who needs the money. He is nice looking, well-behaved and apparently has a good family name. He and Ida live together, but agree not to actually be husband and wife. They will divorce after a year. Ida is very sweet and naive, but still quite intelligent. Is this movie a comedy? Not really, in my opinion, except for the maid Kati. Yet it is endearing and old-fashioned and had a nice ending.

I came into this film knowing nothing about the premise. I was swept quickly into the story and the main character due to the way that women were supposed to be either confined to a convent or society's idea of servitude by an arranged marriage through the eldest male in the family.

Our heroine throws off both of these ideas by quickly being expelled by her convent that her father placed her in at the age of 6, and returns to her ancestral home. Her father places an ad in the local paper in order to find her a husband and the rest of the film sorts out the rest.

Our heroine definitely has a mind of her own and lays out her conditions for this "marriage" and many humorous moments transpire as the young couple get to know each other.

Definitely listen to this movie in the original language of Magyar with the English subtitles to fully appreciate the subtleties and nuances of this film.

Lovely, feel good, easy to watch romance. Interesting characters and premise. Beautiful sets, the rooms are often rich colours with intricate wallpapers and rugs. The music is light and playful, helping to keep the tone of the movie light and enjoyable.

I just felt swept away by this lovely movie for not quite 90 minutes of humorous and heartfelt entertainment. Great for some weekend viewing, a nice one if you like to watch romances at certain times of the month (if you know, you know) as it's not draining or traumatic at all.

Really glad I picked it at random on a Sunday evening, not realising it was made in Hungary and has subtitles but that wasn't an issue and even added to the charm.

I didn't realise it was based on a book but will seek that out, thanks to the other reviewer mentioning it.