Peter Ibbetson Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, I was quite eager to check it out. Unfortunately, after watching a pristine restored version of ‘The Kid Brother’ on YouTube, for this movie, the version I saw on YouTube as well was seriously bad. In fact, the beginning was pretty much unwatchable and I almost quit at some point. Concerning the movie itself, it turned out to be a strange and super romantic tale. For some reason, it did remind me of ‘When Harry met Sally…’ and how this movie could have turned out to be if the main characters were not so cynical. And, yet, with all its old-fashioned approach, I thought it actually did work which might be surprising since I’m also quite cynical like Harry Burns and Sally Albright. I guess there was something pure and unambiguous on how they approached a romantic relationship. To be honest, the movie didn’t have much else to offer though (with a running time of barely 85 mins, there was basically no time for it). There was also the fact that the story didn’t make much sense. Wouldn’t it have been more logical that Peter meet again Mary in Paris instead of during some completely random work assignment? In fact, even the two main characters were barely developed at all. Still, there is no denying that Gary Cooper (who, for some reason, thought he was miscast for this part) really made the most of this material and the guy was just super charismatic. Concerning Ann Harding, she wasn’t bad either but she was given even less to do then Cooper. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be a solid vintage romantic drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.