Only You
- 45 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Yesterday, on our 30th Wedding Anniversary, my wife and I re-watched ONLY YOU, a 1994 Romantic Comedy filled with great memories for us. We had seen it while we were dating and we chose one of Rachel Portman's orchestral tracks to be played at our wedding. It's a stunning score.
Revisiting the film again, it still holds up beautifully, with a very young Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei generating big laughs while stealing hearts.
The film opens with teenager Faith (Tammy Minoff) playing with a Ouija board with her brother Larry. The board spells out the name of her one true love in life..
D-A-M-O-N B-R-A-D-L-E-Y.
Later that week, a fortune teller at a carnival reads her crystal ball and tells Faith that her one true love in life is...Damon Bradley.
The film then moves forward to Faith (Marisa Tomei) now a school teacher who's engaged to a podiatrist named Dwayne (John Benjamin Hickey from "Flags of Our Fathers"). Screenwriter Diane Drake (What Women Want) deftly blends comedy and heart as we see Faith still believing in romance, while married to not-very-romantic guy that fits the "marrying kind" menu in every other way.
Faith's best friend Kate (the always terrific Bonnie Hunt) sees her friend struggling, but sees Dwayne as a catch compared to her own husband, Faith's brother Larry, played by Fisher Stevens. Larry runs a roofing company and is a blue collar guy with very traditional expectations.
As Faith and Dwayne's marriage nears and she sits in her wedding dress pondering the road ahead, Faith takes a call from someone overseas calling to apologize to Dwayne for not being there. His name is Damon Bradley.
Faith hilariously runs off to the airport to find the man of her dreams in Venice.
How can she not?
Director Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, Moonstruck) weaves the laughs and the romance seamlessly, elevated by Tomei's incredibly appealing performance as Faith. She's impossible not to love & cheer for throughout.
Kate and Faith end up in Rome in an unpredictable, stunningly shot adventure that delivers the unexpected to both of them.
As you know from the trailer and the posters, she meets a handsome, funny stranger (Downey) who falls head over heels in love with her. His name is Damon Bradley.
Isn't it?
It's fascinating to watch a 29 year old Robert Downey Jr here. This was his biggest film paycheck at the time, $2 million for the role. He is still the young, quick witted RDJ here, without the swagger that would become his trademark later in life.
He and Tomei have real chemistry.
Billy Zane (Titanic) is hilarious as an air headed hunk who plays into the adventure and Joaquim de Almedia (Clear and Present Danger) is perfectly cast as Giovanni, a wealthy Rome local infatuated with showing Kate the Rome he knows so well.
Deftly blending romantic tributes to the Rome set classic "Roman Holiday", with RDJ offering up a flawless Gregory Peck impression and nearly slapstick comedy moments with the jaw dropping countrysides of Rome, Venice and Positano, the film is beautifully shot by Sven Nykvist, one of the greatest cinematographers of all time. With "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Cries and Whispers" on his resume, who's going to argue?
And that Rachel Portman score. If moments of this movie don't move you with their sheer romance, you might be dead inside.
ONLY YOU was the perfect film to revisit on our 30th Anniversary, serving up a funny, heartwarming romance that gets an A.
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