Amor à Primeira Vista

The script and plot to this movie is simple, but oh so recognizable. Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep: These two amazing actors - whose appearance on screen together is absolutely magical - make of this movie a very sweet and subdued production. The plot is simple: two people who don't intend to, get themselves in a situation, both not knowing what to do with: they're shy, not at ease and in love. See it. It will get romance out of your little toe. 8 out of 10

This is my favourite DeNiro movie and one of Meryl Streep's many great roles (but don't miss The Hours, The Bridges of Madison County and Out of Africa!). Meryl Streep can, better than most, carry a slow movie built almost entirely on moods and quiet thinking.

Still, Falling in Love could never have been what it is without all the excellent supporting actors. The way it paints the image of two very different marriages slowly falling apart without the participants really understanding what is happening is compelling, and the movie, while not exactly complex or deep, doesn't ever take the easy way out. Instead it relies completely on the talents of all the actors, to tell a realistic story of what can and does happen in real life.

The music is also excellent and at times it stands for a significant part of the movie's language.

But don't bother if you're prejudiced against romantic drama.

I'll write more when I have more time. For now, after having read Mr. Maltin's brief critique of this film ("dull script"), I must say that I couldn't disagree more. This is a superb, quiet little gem. It's very realistic, and I bet it fared much better in Europe than here in the States. It's a portrait of two married people who happen to run into each other one day while Christmas shopping, and then again a few months later on the train. As they take the same route most days every week, they begin to strike up a friendship that eventually deepens. Watching both DeNiro's and Streep's expressions alone, in long moments of no dialog, are worth the price of the rental, or the time to watch it on cable. And, the film is a bit suspenseful because you think that there might be a chance that the ending might go the other way; but, I don't want to give too much away. However, it is a Hollywood picture. So, enough said.

At any rate, I just love films that take place in New York but that aren't completely violent (with the exception of anything Scorsese directs) or show some of its worst parts. This is a pleasant, quiet, sweet, rather serious, and sometimes sad film that paints a very realistic portrait of marriage and infidelity. It's worth watching for these two acting Goliaths alone.

Mostly people reserve comments of "Intense" to action movies but

this small film is very intense in emotion. Some scenes the actors

do not even need to speak and you know exactly what is going on

in their heads. This is a simple story by all means but like the

other reviews say, the cast elevates it to something much bigger

than a normal movie. Hollywood probably wouldnt put up the

money for something like this nowadays because its about people

and there is no murder or terrorist activity going on as a subplot. I love this movie and I wish they would put it out on DVD. Another

one paramount seems to have forgotten about.

The passion between the protagonists, De Niro and Streep is completely unbelievable. The nuances, the manner in which they fall in love is so completely real, they literally make one want to fall in love again! Streep's presence is natural, her attraction towards de Niro very gradual and in the end completely possessing. Both are brilliant. Dialogues could have had more depth, they lacked substance. Robert de Niro's honest confession to his wife, his helplessness with the feeling he feels towards Molly - it could happen to anyone! I had watched this film when I was only 16, and at double that age now, the emotion I feel is exactly the same! Watch it if you want to know what falling in love feels...