Some heartfelt moments aside, this documentary is an exasperating, Hello-style hagiography that pays too little attention to Hepburn’s film work
There are some heartfelt moments in this documentary portrait of Audrey Hepburn, with touching contributions from her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, and granddaughter Emma Ferrer – as well as spirited comments from critic Molly Haskell as well as Peter Bogdanovich, who directed Hepburn in his ill-fated 1981 movie They All Laughed. But by and large, it’s an exasperating, simpering, Hello-magazine-interview of a film, blandly celebrating her “iconic” presence in the horribly overrated Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in which she was absurdly unrelaxed and self-conscious.
The film gives due weight to the unaffected loveliness and charm of her first leading role, in Roman Holiday. But amid the waffle, her very good performances in Stanley Donen’s Two For the Road and Richard Lester’s Robin and Marian are just ignored. The film also avoids mentioning Alfred Hitchcock’s grudge against Hepburn for using her pregnancy (with Sean) for getting out of her contract to star in his planned but then abandoned movie No Bail for the Judge: Hepburn was aghast to realise her character would be attacked by a rapist.