In deference to those who are besotted by Richard Gere I think it important to first give some assurances. Richard’s silver hair in Autumn in New York never gets mussed up. He wears it quite long, swept to the back. Only once does it change, when it’s very wet and then it’s really curly!!

And his trademark glance away, the true sign of a taciturnity, self reliance and self obsession is in good form. Why won’t he really look at people? But that rabbity grin, that other hallmark of Gere magic has only shortened a little at the end of its fifth decade. Richard Gere will I suppose still hold sway with his fans.

So now that that’s out of the way let’s look briefly at the plot of Autumn in New York. Gere plays Will who’s a New York restaurteur and ladies man. In the first five minutes he flirts with two women, dumps his girlfriend and exchanges a knowing look with a winsome girl who for some unknown reason floats by in a boat.

Turns out she’s Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and she’s of course besotted by Will whom she meets later on by chance in his restaurant. Will by the way gives expert advice to his chefs in the kitchen whilest bereft of chef’s hat. Where are those health inspectors when you need them?

Anyway Charlotte is 28 years younger than Will and the daughter of one of Will’s former girlfriends. Is Charlotte Will’s daughter? Hmmm. Apparently not. But wait. Charlotte does have a bung heart and is likely to die at any moment.

She says that she’ll later on make a good sob story for Will to use when he picks up chicks and you can see that she’s not really joking.

Anyway a surgeon turns up who looks like a butcher and you’ll need to see the film to discover whether young Charlotte makes it into next week. But I’d advise you to not bother.

One Silver Haired Fly