One of the most surprising and delightful movies I've come across in a long time, Sabrina is a remake of the Audrey Hepburn / Humphrey Bogart pairing of the late forties. The story has been streamline and (in my humble opinion) much improved by giving us interesting characters and likable situations. It's become a family favorite.

Sabrina Fairchild (Julia Ormond) has spent the majority of her life up a tree, looking in on Larabe parties. The daughter of a chauffeur to a wealthy family of socialites, she is madly in love with David, a handsome playboy who doesn't give her the time of day. His brother Linus (Harrison Ford) is the staunch businessman, a man known as 'the world's only living heart donor.' He took a multi-million dollar company and turned it into some 'real money.' Unfortunately, his life is more tied up in business than a good balance of work and play; he is the dry contrast to David, who chases anything in skirts and doesn't know where his office is in their tri-level building. Concerned for her obsession with the wealthy young aristocrat, her father manages to find her a position with a French photography unit and she travels to France, hopefully to forget about David. But time seems only to make it worse, despite the attentions of a charming and handsome photographer. 

In the meantime, David has met up with a gorgeous and talented young surgeon whose parents own one of the most moneymaking production companies in the world and wedding bells threaten to toll, especially when Linus manages to build a business deal out of the engagement. It's about this time Sabrina returns, transformed from the awkward tomboy into a radiant and confident beauty. David suddenly realizes that all this time the most beautiful woman on earth has been right under his nose, and has cold feet about his upcoming wedding. But Linus isn't going to let anything get in the way of this deal... even Sabrina. Hilarious schemes and charming intrigues abound as it's an all-out war between the brothers to see who marries who... and who gets the better deal. Full of wit, irony, and more than a few winks at the earlier classic, Sabrina is an utterly charming film with a good heart. One of the best aspects of the film, other than the storyline itself, is the ideal cast. Harrison Ford makes a comically bland Linus, who can always be found showing off product reform to his dinner guests, or making cell-phone calls on his way upstairs. He's so dull he becomes completely likable, and surprisingly, he gets some of the best lines in the film. Julia Ormond is similarly engaging... and gorgeous. The transformation from long-haired tomboy to short-haired Paris beauty is dazzling. Greg Kinnear also gets in some great knocks; but it's the chemistry between the leads that pulls it off.

For a PG film, content issues are mild. There's some profanity interspaced within the two hour film, along with some vague innuendo. It's fairly plain David's an all-out playboy, although the most we actually see of his activities are some kissing and flirting with various party guests. At one point we find Sabrina in a compromising kissing position with her French boyfriend, but he says she's not into it and can't fix her problems in bed; she needs to fix them in her mind. The scene is brief and really the only thing objectionable, other than a few bikini-clad models in the background of a Paris shoot. If you liked While You Were Sleeping, Sabrina runs along the same lines. Some of my favorite moments involve her interaction with her father, a lovable chauffeur with a fetish for books. 'Do you know what I like about you, dad?' she asks at one point, lovingly touching his books. 'That you became a chauffeur so you might have time to read.' Her relationship with him so real and sweet it makes Linus and David's relationship with their overbearing and pretentious mother all the more noticeably askew. I also liked the conclusion... that sometimes business should be personal. So get out a mug of hot chocolate and curl up with Sabrina. You won't regret it.