GFF 2010: Bringing Up Baby

Filmmakers, critics and cineastes alike can’t give anything but love to this baby, but that wasn’t always the case. Released in 1938, it bombed at the box office and Cary Grant thought he’d never make a name for himself… yet Bringing Up Baby remains one of the best comedies ever made. Its story of a repressed palaeontologist (Grant shining through Harold Lloyd specs) ensnared by a capricious young woman (Hepburn, who is excellent) and the ensuing farce that drives them crazy in love has aged exceptionally well, partly due to its thoroughly modern speed and relentless energy (watch last year’s In the Loop and try to spot the difference), but also because of its overarching influence on the rom-com (see “quirky chick grabs a geek” movies like Annie Hall, What’s Up Doc?, Garden State and 500 Days of Summer), few examples of which have successfully captured its winning spirit. Oh, and thanks to a sparkling script and Hawks’ finely tuned direction, it’s hilarious.