The Burnished Glow of ‘Autumn’

Richard Gere has protested MGM opening his latest, “Autumn in New York,” without press previews, and rightly so, for it contains one of his most unsparing, far-ranging performances.

Yet you can see why MGM chose its course--not because it is a bad movie, which is the customary reason for avoiding opening day reviews, but because it is so vulnerable. In an era of easy irony, “Autumn” dares to wear its heart on its sleeve, and it also has a plot that not only shouldn’t be given away, but may sound like a cliche when it is. In any event, this unpredictable, even rigorous film deserves a chance to find its audience.

It is entirely respectable to admire those sweeping screen romances of Hollywood’s golden era, but they daunt today’s filmmakers, who are afraid of seeming corny and self-conscious. Not so director Joan Chen and writer Allison Burnett, who go for an all-stops-out love story, but do so with uncommon intelligence and honesty. Ultimately, however, the love story serves as a frame for a portrait of a man in the process of a painful, long delayed self-discovery. Silver-haired and durably handsome, Gere’s Will Keane has managed to do whatever he pleased with tremendous success in both his personal and professional lives throughout his entire 48 years, but now is unexpectedly overcome with genuine emotion and all the responsibility that it can entail.

We meet Will as he has attained a pinnacle: his picture on the cover of New York magazine. He is the proprietor of one of the trendiest restaurants in Manhattan. His business, his home and his wardrobe are a triumph of elegance. His every move, his every word, his every gesture ooze a smooth, easy self-confidence. Can it be a surprise that Will is a legendary lady-killer?

Drawn to his restaurant for her birthday party on the basis of that cover story, Winona Ryder’s Charlotte Fielding is just the kind of well-bred radiant beauty who would attract Will, who is conscious of, but hardly daunted by, the quarter of a century differences in their ages. He has no trouble in sweeping Charlotte off her feet, but in doing so is about to discover what kind of man he is--and what sort of man he might become.

“Autumn in New York” begins in a lyrical mood as Will and Charlotte meet and begin an affair in a New York at its most romantic and inviting. The film’s burnished glow remains even as it plumbs unanticipated emotional depths. Chen unerringly guides Gere in a role that taps his reserves and skills fully, for Will is ultimately driven to bare his soul. When we meet him he’s a man who lives for sexual conquest, but when we leave him he has discovered an entire new meaning and scope in his life. Ryder’s role is scarcely less challenging, for she’s playing the woman who has the potential for stopping this Don Juan in his tracks as no other woman ever has--not even her late mother, who had been smitten with Will herself.

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Indeed, Charlotte’s grandmother Dolly (Elaine Stritch) is not so happy about history repeating itself with her granddaughter, but she’s a sophisticated, salty aristocrat who might talk plain to Will but is by breeding too reticent to reach out to Charlotte to guide her in matters of the heart. Stritch is a marvel of subtle nuances, playing a woman who has lost much but soldiers on, fortified by a stiff drink in hand. Anthony LaPaglia is Will’s down-to-earth bartender and business partner in whom Will glimpses what he might be missing in life, and Vera Farmiga is a lovely woman whose interest in Will proves most unromantic.

At first glance the director of the bleak but exquisite “Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl,” a prize-winning account of a young girl and her fate during the Cultural Revolution, might seem an unlikely choice for “Autumn in New York,” but Chen, in only her second feature, proves ideal. She’s as skilled at making the film worth taking seriously as she is in directing actors. Having played “The Last Emperor’s” consort, she understands well how poignant beauty combined with vulnerability can be. Stylish and finely crafted, “Autumn in New York” inevitably will strike some as a sleek soap opera. What it really is a classic woman’s picture that is also a depiction of a man transformed by love beyond his imagining.

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* MPAA-rated: PG-13, for language and some sensuality. Times guidelines: The film may be too emotionally intense for children; some language, adult themes.

‘Autumn in New York’

Richard Gere: Will Keane

Winona Ryder: Charlotte Fielding

Anthony LaPaglia: John

Elaine Stritch: Dolly

An MGM presentation in association with Lakeshore Entertainment. Director Joan Chen. Producers Amy Robinson, Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg. Executive producers Ted Tannebaum, Ron Bozman. Screenplay by Allison Burnett. Cinematographer Changwei Gu. Editor Ruby Yang. Music Gabriel Yared. Costumes Carol Oditz. Production designer Mark Friedberg. Art director Jess Gonchor. Set decorator Catherine Davis. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

In general release.