Clarity and a striking ability to set a real, comfortable tone is the charm Billy Wilder brings to the big screen so frequently. His work on Sabrina, while not the heyday of his pairings with Jack Lemmon, provides audiences with a great love triangle that has managed to survive the weathered storm of time. Sabrina consists of great storytelling techniques, which should be no surprise for those that have experienced Wilder’s craft before. He pairs himself with the classics of the 1950s, although it was hardly fair to expect the director to know who the heartthrobs and heroes would be. Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart, an established trio of fine performers, was always going to be a safe gamble. Sabrina is a safe gamble for Wilder, who brings out infectiously good moments of stormy relationships.
All work or all play gives Hepburn a run for her money as she fends off two rival lovers. It feels rather usual and particular for the genre, but with that Wilder spin, it is hard to fend off such enjoyable tropes. Romantic comedies with the hints of drama deeply set into it are now pastiched vehicles for big-name actors to try their craft at something light before they hit for that inevitable awards home run. When Wilder crafted them, they were something to provide that home run. Sabrina is a natural and well-stated championing of just how much fun romantic comedy can be. Hepburn more than anybody in this feature understands that drama drives the lighter moments. If there is not a truthful story underlying the beauty of the lead trio, then it may as well be a cavalcade of bad gags and soppy kisses.
Sabrina is thankfully much, much more than that. It is a feature dependent on the skills and intimacy of its leads. Hepburn is a stunning addition to the cast, an electric lead performance from her as the eponymous Sabrina Fairchild sees her dance the romantic death with two brothers that are complete polar opposites. Is freedom more liberating than working? Which is the more responsible of the two? Wilder finds that neither is all that fun and balance is key. Bogart and Holden are strong supports to Hepburn’s tour of narrative strengths and noteworthy, scene-stealing moments. It is warm and fulfilling in ways only Wilder can conjure. Witty dialogue is the key to unlocking that, and Sabrina has an abundance of it.
That abundance serves Wilder and his cast well. A feature that riffs with lighter moments just as well as it does when the inevitable climax and fallout occur. Sabrina features great performances whose consistency in the face of often challenging material is stretched out well. They manage to present broad and meaningful attributions and assessments of the material when, in other hands, it would have been vague and simplistic. Sabrina is as charming as it is engaging, a feature that relies not just on Wilder’s steady work but on Hepburn’s charisma and the necessary big names of Bogart and Holden. What a collaboration for these classic staples of Hollywood. It is a treat for those convinced that romantic comedy has something more to offer. It does. Sabrina is proof of that.
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