The Audrey Hepburn Story

Many actresses have "played" the ingenue role, but Audrey Hepburn "was" that role. Modern audiences tend to be rather jaded about such things, and for good reason. No sooner do we discover some seemingly innocent yet precocious girl on the screen, who wins our hearts, but her mug is in the tabloids, all painted up like a tart, and involved in some sordid situation. They pretend they aren't role models, just actresses "playing" role models, but Audrey Hepburn was what she was both off-screen and on.

To the "youth" audience of today, with its Winona Ryders, and for that matter Jennifer Love Hewett, an Audrey Hepburn must seem as remote and irrelevant as a Shirley Temple or Mary Pickford. Yet Audrey personified something sadly missing in these starlets of today - something decent and respectable, unwilling to appear cheap and sleazy. Perhaps through this excellent portrayal of her life, younger audiences will discover that, at least to Audrey, an actress could be "more" than just another painted-up, tinsel-town puppet.

The characterization of Audrey, as portrayed by Hewett, is so perfect that one wonders how anyone like that could ever have pulled it off. To the minutest detail of every look, word and nuance of Audrey Hepburn, she gives a thoroughly convincing rendition. Too bad some of the depth didn't rub off along with mastering the surfaces. The only critical comment is that the film was obviously made for television, with rather jarring breaks to allow for commercials. These are not there for the recorded version, and hence just when we get in the mood for one scene, we are jolted into another. The result seems hacked up and butchered. That's a minor complaint for an otherwise outstanding film, however.