Il pretendente

Lovely, feel good, easy to watch romance. Interesting characters and premise. Beautiful sets, the rooms are often rich colours with intricate wallpapers and rugs. The music is light and playful, helping to keep the tone of the movie light and enjoyable.

I just felt swept away by this lovely movie for not quite 90 minutes of humorous and heartfelt entertainment. Great for some weekend viewing, a nice one if you like to watch romances at certain times of the month (if you know, you know) as it's not draining or traumatic at all.

Really glad I picked it at random on a Sunday evening, not realising it was made in Hungary and has subtitles but that wasn't an issue and even added to the charm.

I didn't realise it was based on a book but will seek that out, thanks to the other reviewer mentioning it.

I liked the story line, well acted. Only problem I had is that the subtitles were written faster than when they spoke, you have to wait for them speaking to catch up and had both their lines in one text box, couldn't tell whose line was whose. In the case of the housekeeper there weren't any subtitles at all so I had no idea what she was saying. Otherwise, I enjoyed it. The costumes, hair and period furniture were beautiful. The picnic scene was like something out of a Claude Manet painting. You'll get a real feel for the period due to the architecture and scenery selections. Beautifully photographed movie.

The version I saw of this movie at Prime Video this weekend was dubbed in English, so captions or subtitles weren't needed. Lip movement wise it was a good dubbing job, yet the voices of everyone seemed odd and too much like they were reading the dialogue, which of course they were.

Ida was sent to a convent as a young girl after her mother died. When she was supposed to get out, she was told she must stay another year to teach. Now that year is over, she is being told by the Mother Superior she needs to join their order and stay forever. They are interested in the dowry they will receive from her wealthy father, since she will never marry as a nun, and her father does not want her back home.

She does not want to and fortunately finds a way to get tossed out. Her father is shocked to see her and she is shocked to see what is going on in his house. Wild women dancing on the tables, and her father has a fiance who is a year younger than Ida. Ida says she cannot stay there under those conditions, so her father places and ad in the newspaper to marry her off. He is choosy about who he picks, however, and tells her she can get a divorce after the first year of marriage, and then can live alone. As a single woman who never married, she could not do so.

She ends up marrying an artist who needs the money. He is nice looking, well-behaved and apparently has a good family name. He and Ida live together, but agree not to actually be husband and wife. They will divorce after a year. Ida is very sweet and naive, but still quite intelligent. Is this movie a comedy? Not really, in my opinion, except for the maid Kati. Yet it is endearing and old-fashioned and had a nice ending.

Romantic movie without the drama, which should have been if

Unfortunately the former version from 1974 (tt3749338) set the niveau so high, that this version simply could have not reached it.

The male lead was not a good choice, at the end I was asking myself if he is an actor?

I gave a star for being Hungarian movie, because I am a Hungarian.

I gave an additional star, because it roughly follows the written story of one of my favourite writer.

I gave a star for the female lead's performance.

And lastly I gave a star because at least they are tryiing to make movies like this.

I you have not seen the 1974 version, you will have nice evening.

It has a really nice amtosphere, great directing and there is a lot of chemistry between the main charachters. The "from hate to love" story itself never gets old and it still has accuracy for the 21th century, even though the original novel was written a hundred years ago. The movie has good dramaturgy, the romance is well build up and we can see step by step the path that brings the two main characters together. So all together it is really enjoyable, fun and heartwarming movie, the actors doing their best, everything is well made in it. I highly recommend for anyone who is into that kind of romance trope, period drama's and Jane Austen adaptations.