What ABOUT Breakfast at Tiffany's?

The song ”Breakfast at Tiffany's” by Deep Blue Something was quite popular back when I was in college. Its upbeat melody and hopeful lyrics would linger with me long after I'd heard it, yet I didn't fully understand its meaning. Certainly, I gleaned from the context that it was the story of a couple on the verge of breaking up. The girl points out that they have nothing in common while the guy defends their relationship by pointing out a movie they both enjoyed. However, I had never seen Breakfast at Tiffany's, nor did I know anything about it. Thanks to lingering lyrics from my youth, the film had a place on my Netflix queue alongside every other movie I've never seen. The other day it made it to the top of the list and arrived in my mailbox.

I'm sorry to say that except for a clip from the original Sabrina my mom forced me to watch because it was filmed near our home, I hadn't seen anything the lovely Audrey Hepburn starred in. Certainly a film legend, her absence from my viewing history was major. In Breakfast at Tiffany's she plays Holly Golightly, an escort living in Manhattan, fleeing her former life and herself. She's saving money or hoping to marry a rich man so, when her brother finally gets out of the army, neither of them would have to return to a home she wanted no part of. Her life changes when a struggling writer, played by George Peppard, future leader of The A-team, moves in to her apartment building. Golightly thinks of herself as a wild animal, as free and untamed as the nameless cat she's adopted. She considers love a cage and bounces around from persona to persona, acting in control of her parties and relationships, forming a friendship with Peppard's Paul Varjak, who falls in love with her but has his work cut out for him if he's going to “tame” her. She treats him like a surrogate brother for a time, even calling him “Fred”, her brother's name. Eventually, her mistakes in choosing a suitor as well as the questionable people she associates with professionally catch up to her, as her self-destructive behavior reaches a destructive climax.

The movie begins as a lighthearted 60s party film, comedy shifting to a romantic drama as it reveals itself. I found the casting of Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi, Holly's irate Japanese upstairs neighbor, to be an unusual choice. Rather than hire a Japanese actor, they taped Rooney's eyes back and gave him false teeth and a wig, creating a stereotypical characature that borders on offensive, fading as Rooney completely disappears into the role. I guess it was just a different era, well before political correctness and good taste. Ultimately, the viewer's main concern is seeing the two main characters overcome their obstacles to hopefully get together.

Does Peppard love it when a plan comes together? I'm sure I'm in the minority of people who hadn't seen such a major film, but I won't spoil the ending. Suffice to say the last three minutes had me on the edge of my seat, and I was cursing myself for an uncontrollable emotional response to the plight of a cat. It definitely possesses all the qualities of the perfect date movie, and I can understand it as the basis of that song. If you've never seen it, or even if you have, definitely plan on curling up with your significant other to watch it, but be prepared to have the song ”Moon River” get stuck in your head. Chief Wiggum said it best: ”aw, that's right, they have breakfast at Tiffany's now.”