L'homme de mes rêves

Warning to guys - you will probably hate this movie. But I think most women, judging from the user comments, will love it. This is a quintessential chick flick. It shouldn't be taken too seriously as it is a fantasy piece. You will have to suspend your sense of reality to enjoy this. But that's the point.

At the heart of this story is the idea that we all have one true love we are destined to be with. Call it Fate, Destiny, or even God-ordained - but it's the notion that forces will conspire to put us in touch with our one and only soul-mate.

This movie reminds me of another one of my favorite contemporary movies, Serendipity(2001), in the sense of being destined to find our soul-mate (although it is not a fantasy piece). I think guys probably find the fantasy, imaginary friend notion of IHTBY a little too corny for their tastes. But if you like a good, cheesy romance story, then you should like this picture.

I've notice several reviewers criticize Rogers for her little girl, squeaky voice. But I think in this role, it enhances the story. If you look at it from the idea that she is like a little girl who has never really grown up - but is somewhat frozen in time to back when she was 6 years old, when she first meets her "soul-mate". I know this is a stretch, but that is how I interpreted it and it worked for me.

I love the sets and costumes in this movie. It makes for a visual feast. Rogers' gowns are unbelievably gorgeous, especially the wedding gown at the very end. But even her dressing gowns were quite elaborate, adding to the notion of just how wealthy her family is. I find it hard to believe women actually wore these - they look incredibly uncomfortable! If the beautiful mansion set with the incredible staircase looks familiar, you may recognize it from Holiday (1938), the George Cukor film starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. That staircase is just amazing - the most beautiful I have ever seen.

There is one thing I did find hard to swallow, and I didn't notice it until Rogers and Wilde are in the car and he finally decides to marry her. How did he not notice the huge, honking diamond engagement ring on her finger and not know she was already engaged? Also, look closely at Wilde's left ring finger in this scene as well. He looks like he is wearing a ring on that finger that is being disguised so as to not be noticeable. What is that about?

GINGER ROGERS plays another one of her fluttery sapheads with a little girl voice and manner that becomes irritating after the first ten minutes. She's caught in a script full of trouble--because none of it makes a good deal of sense. Supposedly, her crush as a girl on a boy who played Indian games with her, has her fantasizing that this boy--now a man in her dreams--is the one she was destined to marry.

So, in a prologue to the nonsense, she shows up at the altar several times with a man she cannot exchange the wedding vows with--even up until the ending where she and RON RANDELL are about to be wed.

It's tiresome stuff, but is somewhat salvaged by a couple of bright performances from CORNEL WILDE as the Indian incarnation (in her dreams) and RON RANDELL as the stuffy suitor who has the best command of all the comic lines and situations. Indeed, it's Randell who gives the most polished, professional job in the whole film. And CORNEL WILDE, in a dual role as the Indian and the fireman Ginger eventually meets, lends charm and physical presence to his part.

SPRING BYINGTON is properly befuddled (as usual) as Rogers' dithery mother but the whole story fizzles long before it reaches a rather predictable ending.

Ginger mugs her way through most of it but it's her little girl voice that is the most irritating factor in her portrayal of the daffy heroine.

Sweet comedy that can best be described as daffy. Ginger hadn't yet slipped into her grand lady mode and is a dizzy delight with an amazing wardrobe, the wedding dress with shimmering halo is something to behold! She's also at the peak of her personal beauty and looks stunning throughout, save one scene where she wears one of the ugliest hats ever.

Cornel Wilde was always an agile, agreeable comedian and matches well with Ginger, handling his dual role with aplomb.

Spring Byington and especially Percy Waram are delightful as the exasperated parents of the indecisive Miss Rogers.

A minor comedy but anyone who enjoyed The Major and the Minor will like this.

I also saw this movie "It Had To be You" when I was 8 or 9 .... I would love to see it again .... does anyone know if it is available? I tried Turner Classic Movies and did not get a hit .... are there any archives that one might be able to look into? .... one of the things I remember vividly is that there was an Indian in the movie, looked like Tonto from the Lone Ranger, and seem to remember a staircase and a train ..... interestingly enough I saw this movie on a ship when my family was going back to South America on one of the "Grace" line ships, the "Santa Isabel" of course at the time there was no movie room on the ship but it was shown on a screen hung probably on the stern of the ship and we sat on chairs on the deck. I would like to add that after I wrote the above comment, I did find a DVD in England. Comes in the European format so you need a player or PC that has that option. Have to say that it was great to be able to see watch it again.

This film opens with the funniest "Preston Sturges" sequence not written or directed by Preston Sturges (unless anyone knows otherwise?) It's a montage of lavish high society wedding ceremonies at which, over several years, Ginger Rogers jilts a series of different grooms at the altar, the comic tension and perspiration mounting as each of her "I do" moments approaches.

Sadly, after that, the Panama-Frank screenplay switches to the sub-genre of psychological or fantasy comedy, already attempted by Ginger in Lady in the Dark (1944). Here, she conjures up a physical incarnation of her ideal man, which turns out to be Cornel Wilde dressed as an (American) "Indian" complete with feathered headband - an erotic fantasy unlikely to be shared by many viewers. He's more irritating than amusing, especially as Wilde's idea of playing comedy is to wear a perpetual grin, and when he crashes through a window to reach Ginger he reminded me of Walter Pidgeon's Id monster in Forbidden Planet.

The much-delayed explanation for his appearance arrives with Ginger's viewing of an old home movie showing a childhood sweetheart who wore the same "Indian" costume. It certainly suggests arrested development in her character, supposedly aged 26, though Rogers herself was around 36 at the time. She then searches for the "real" adult embodiment of the boy in the home movie, who unfortunately is also played by Cornel Wilde (without so much grinning, so we can tell them apart). With the fictional and real Wilde running around like identical twins, more complications ensue and I wondered if it inspired Woody Allen in The Purple Rose of Cairo, especially given the movie-within-movie angle.