Pol Pololo
An insult to the memory of one of the greatest, if not the greatest music composers of all times.The director and writers should change profession and use the spare time to learn how to do proper research.Why does Hugh grant needs to speak in a pseudo polish-Russian-god knows what accent in a movie where everyone is speaking English and pretending being french without french accents? If Chopin was German or British or French surely this movie would have been burnt...Surely they can't take the fact that one of the greatest comes from Poland.But then if you have an IQ below 50 and you love soap operas this movie is for you! I can change my review for you.Alternative review: Great movie, I, I ve learned a lot about history and music and Hugh Grant should have been awarded an Oscar for that true some portrait of the music composer.
peacham
Brilliant direction from stage legend James Lapine highlights this delightful comedy of manners based on the romance of Chghopin and Sand.The cast is all together perfect. Judy Davis, sexy,strong and dynamic as Sand, Hugh Grant very low key and real as Chopin, JUlian Sands, arrogant and proud as Franz Lizt, the always wonderful Bernadette Peters, charming and duplicitous as his mistress.special mention must be made to Mandy Patinkin's scene stealing role of Alfred DeMussett. although on screen for probably no more than a half an hour total, Patinkin manages to steal the film as the cynical,alcoholic poet. Emma Thompson and the late Anton Rodgers provide delightful support as the Duke and Dutchess who invite the artists for the weekend and wind up the but of their jokes.all in all 'Impromptu" is a real treat.
alphasun
I want to add my voice to those who rate this as among the best films ever made. The writer seems to deserve a bit more credit. The whole script is like one of the wonderful, rich piano pieces by Chopin or Liszt -- loaded with details that the actors and director have exploited to the full. Judy Davis is exactly the actress for this part. Her public and intimate scenes are both magnificent. For the first time I realise that she is on the same level as Emma Thompson. Hugh Grant and the others, right down to the bit parts, are all perfect or as near as one can expect. A fine film about art which recognizes the most important thing about art, that it is a reflection of life. On selecting it on TV I suppose I expected a more limited, tear-jerking sort of film and what is now termed a chick-flick -- instead, I found a masterpiece.
nycritic
If it weren't for Judy Davis' overpowering presence (which might sound redundant since that is what she is known for), IMPROMPTU would be an extended piece of boredom modulated by the occasional incursion into repartee, blended with the revolving door of (then) rising and established British actors, peppered with an occasional American thrown in for sport. What little plot there actually is, revolves around Aurora Dupin, a.k.a. Georges Sand -- arguably the first feminist the world and literature ever had -- and how her life becomes a sitcom of sorts where men and women flutter in and out, some of them -- Franz Lizst (Julian Sands) and Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant) -- becoming lovers, and others, like Felicien Mallefille (one of her former beaus, played by Georges Corraface) turning mildly psycho and trying to prove something by challenging the effeminate Chopin into a duel which never officially establishes itself since Chopin faints dead away and she has to shoot Mallefille herself. Some characters are written rather shabbily -- most notably Marie d'Agoult played by a shrill Bernadette Peters -- who switches personalities quicker than she would do outfits and seems to act on whims that have to do more with her love/hate acquaintance with Sand than actual preoccupation with anyone else. Other than that, with Emma Thompson in a small part, IMPROMPTU lives up to its ad hoc story and execution and is a solid piece of entertainment.
AD
