I would consider this a cult film because it is a very obscure film. However, there are people who feel very passionately about this film. I am one of them.
How about a discussion why this film isn't popular or misunderstood.
Maybe I'm just talking to myself....
I understand that this film has a select following and can be nomered into the cult realm. But remember this was quite a departure for Hepburn. She sunk her teeth into a role that called for her to be visceral and she still maintained her Audrey-esque charm. This movie also broke barriers with conventional standards of marriage and relationships.
shareI like this movie a lot,and I agree,Ms Hepburn gave one of her best performances ever.I really liked Albert's line,"Why don't you put a very British sock in it."Makes me laugh every time.
Beware,I bear more grudges than lonely High Court judges-Morrissey
This film is one of my newly-discovered favorites. I suspect that it has been less popular than other classic romances mainly because it is more brutally honest about love and marriage than any others I've seen. It was literally painful for me to watch, yet somehow deeply reassuring at the same time, because it debunks some commonly held ideas about how relationships get "destroyed." There is no idealism here, and the non-linear structure of the storyline is a brilliant illustration of how love evolves, carrying the past and present simultaneously, sometimes as baggage, but more often as beauty that sustains married partners through the inevitable periods of unhappiness.
I feel that it's all too easy in our current culture to expect marriage to follow one of two formulaic patterns, either trudging along faithfully without causing any real harm to either party, or forking off into the dark path toward divorce. Two For the Road instead tests the assertion made in Breakfast at Tiffany's, that sometimes people really do "belong together," regardless of what happens along the way. The only point on which Mark and Joanna seem to agree is that they love each other, but I personally find them extremely well-matched in terms of personal strength. They are both maddeningly imperfect, intensely emotional, and equally stubborn, which admittedly makes for a volatile relationship. However, it is also precisely why neither one could ever truly destroy the other.
Love this movie!!! unfortunately not too many people actually know about it. if people are having a discussion about Audrey Hepburn i'm sure Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady would be mentioned but people seem to forget about Two for the Road :(
shareThe book "Cult Movies" contains an essay by Henry Blinder about this gem. I really think he was onto something in this quote, putting the movie back in the context of its era:
For years critics had kept Audrey Hepburn high on a pedestal, so her teaming with loutish Albert Finney was too great a depature for many of them...we had been seeing Hepburn steadily in movies for the prior seventeen years while Finney had only been in a few films in an eight-year career. Perhaps because of Audrey Hepburn's stature, critics found Finney and his character brutish. "Poor Audrey," the critics said, "how could you do that to our Audrey!" They could not get beyond the image of Finney, the young upstart, mistreating their Princess. It was an imbalance that hounded the film in the beginning.
Agree? Disagree? Discuss.
Funpig
Throw the baby out with the bathwater and then all you have is a wet critically injured baby.
I just saw the movie tonight and I'm of a younger generation, so I wasn't around then to see any criticisms of this movie. I'd actually never heard of this movie, but I have a general knowledge of pop culture new and old, I think.
I'd have never thought of the pairing of Audrey and Albert being strange like Blinder says, but now that you say it, I can understand your point. Seeing as you called this movie a gem, you most likely don't think that criticism says anything bad about the movie, just people's perceptions at the time considering the actors' careers, characterizations, portrayals... I think that you should never let your perceptions ruin a great movie, though, which maybe you and Blinder would agree with.
ps- I like your signature.
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I just saw the movie and loved it. The TV Guide online review (which is frankly far too harsh -- the film is not dated at all) also suggests it's a cult film in part because of Finney's casting. Well, regardless of what critics thought, Hepburn and Finney must have genuinely enjoyed themselves and each other since they started dating during the filming of the movie. Their natural chemistry comes across, not to mention they are both wonderful actors.
What's so great about this movie is what defines most great films: their ability to take everyday situations and render them poignant and different. Nothing particularly unique happens in this movie, but that's not a valid criticism of the film given the way it tells the story in rich vignettes.
Maybe contemporary critics found it difficult to see Audrey Hepburn with a younger man -- both in real life and onscreen -- after her divorce and her numerous onscreen pairings with men like Cary Grant and Gregory Peck. Well, after seeing Charade (and Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief...but that's a different story), I was much more impressed holistically by Two for a Road. Obviously it's difficult and a little unfair to compare this film to those romantic comedy/thrillers, but I do so anyway to stress that this film has really aged well because of the timeless material and rich approach. Audrey was perfectly cast and is completely believable at both ends of the age spectrum. And heck, Finney is no Cary Grant, but so what? He's just as talented an actor, good-looking, and certainly more energetic at this point in his career. Their chemistry felt more special than some of the stock characterizations I've seen in star vehicles that didn't have the material to match.
Sorry for the rant, but it bothers me that it took me so long to discover this underrated gem (one of the best for all involved) when so many other so-called classics air repeatedly yet fail to move or entertain me.
Maybe contemporary critics found it difficult to see Audrey Hepburn with a younger man -- both in real life and onscreen -- after her divorce and her numerous onscreen pairings with men like Cary Grant and Gregory Peck.
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