The Audrey Hepburn Story [DVD]

Jennifer Love Hewitt is a beautiful and talented actress with style and charm. She is not, however, Audrey Hepburn, and try as she might, she is unable to embody the gamine actress in the made-for-television biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story.

Making the Hepburn bio was a gutsy move for Hewitt, and one has to admire her chutzpah. But the role, if it was to be dared, would have been better off in the hands of an unknown. As it is, it's difficult to shake the image of Hewitt in her television and teen roles, and while she mastered the wide-eyed look, her eyes are not doe-like enough and her accent borders on ludicrous. If you can move past this, though, the story of Hepburn's life--even given her do-gooder qualities--is interesting fodder for exploration, although at times the script feels as if it's trying to create tension where there is little. Desertion by her father, a brief stint in the resistance in wartime Netherlands, and affairs with fellow actors create drama, but not enough to enliven the film. Part of the problem is the entire film is told from flashback from the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's, so much of Hepburn's great work is left untouched.

Yet, despite the flaws, fans will appreciate the paean to Hepburn, as we glimpse into the difficulties of her early career and her budding stardom. The two girls who play the childhood Hepburn excel in their roles, and the strong supporting cast--including Frances Fisher as her mother and Eric McCormack as Mel Ferrer--brighten the film, which ultimately brings a touch of Hepburn's elegance to our own humdrum lives. --Jenny Brown

Starring JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT (Party Of Five I Know What You Did Last Summer) as Audrey Hepburn, and featuring FRANCES FISHER (Titanic) as her mother, this mini series reveals the dramatic life lead by this most appealing of performers her childhood in Holland during the Nazi occupation, her meteoric rise to stardom on Broadway and in films, her doomed love affair with William Holden, her troubled marriage to Mel Ferrer, and her life long search for her father, a collaborator during the War. Concealed behind the dazzling smile of Audrey Hepburn was a woman who had known great difficulties, and overcame them to become the top international film star in the world, an Academy Award winning actress, and a fashion designers dream. Her every change of hair-style was copied by young women all over the world. Featured in the series are her teenage years during the war, in which deprivation and hunger forged her determination to survive and her work with the Resistance almost cost her life. After the war, she and her mother fled to London, where Audrey supported them dancing in revues until she was spotted by the famous French author Collette, who personally chose her to play Gigi on Broadway, in which she became an overnight sensation. She then went on to star in such films as Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck (for which she won an Academy Award), Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, who would become her lover, Funny Face with Fred Astaire, and perhaps her crowning role , Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys, where she clashed with its author, Truman Capote. Her affair with the womanizing star William Holden was threatening to her new success but he was perhaps the great love of her life and their break up drove her into the arms of Mel Ferrer, who was to become her first husband. As his own career was on the wane, Audreys was spiraling ever upward and Ferrer devoted himself to being her protector and sometimes, jailer. He did fulfil her long dream of having a child but the marriage eventually terminated. Her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys best described Audreys own life; a lost beauty looking for love in the arms of the protector/father she never had known.