There have been a few oversights on my part of some of Hollywood’s biggest features, but I have plans for two of them.  I do not mean to be obtuse, at least not purposely, but if you stick with The Legionnaire, you will eventually see them reviewed.  There are others, though, and one of which I am not particularly fond of, hence my delay in covering it, is Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).  I saw it for the first time nearly ten years ago at the gorgeous Tampa Theatre.  If you are ever in the area and you have the time, I strongly encourage you to visit, but I digress.  I remember anticipating viewing the film, having known about it by reputation for some time.  I came out of it feeling more annoyed than satisfied after crossing a piece of classic cinema off my list.  Much of this has to do with Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), the female protagonist, with black cocktail dress bedecked in jewels and accompanying, longer-than-usual cigarette holder.  When I saw it, it was at a time when my Faith was just beginning to deepen.  I felt it important to take a hard stance on certain behaviors, positions that I still hold if not so fervently.  Sin is bad, but compassion is what redeems.  Was this maturing, for lack of a better term, used while watching the film for the first time in so long?  You will have to read on to find out.

The first scene, appropriately enough, is of Holly on the early morning streets of Manhattan, having Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  Her repast consists of a coffee and pastry, and she nibbles as she walks along looking at the display cases.  Later that morning back at her apartment, she is awakened earlier than she wishes by a new arrival to her building, author Paul Varjak (George Peppard).  The reason for his intrusion is that he had yet to get his key, but Holly takes being awakened in stride and invites him in to use the telephone.  The call he needs to make never gets dialed as their conversation unfolds and she changes in order to make an appointment at Sing Sing Prison.  She is not in any trouble herself, but the socialite is paid $100 a week to visit New York mobster Sally Tomato (Alan Reed).  As they walk out, she flags a taxi that happens to bring the person with Paul’s keys.  This is Emily Eustance “2E” Failenson (Patricia Neal), and while she poses as his interior decorator, they have an, er . . . special relationship.  Either way, a special friendship, but of a decidedly different nature, quickly develops between Holly and Paul, whom she claims looks likes her brother Fred (not pictured).  This comes out after she sneaks up to his flat in order to avoid a drunken date, and she soon falls asleep as she is waiting.  Her slumber turns to dreaming, revealing personal details about her life she would rather not have others know, saying so as she makes a hasty retreat.  The next day she invites Paul for a conciliatory drink.  He does not expect the swinging party that greets him when he enters her place, to the eternal consternation of their upstairs neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi (Mickey Rooney).  When he cannot take the noise anymore, he calls the police, but the less said about him, the better.  She slips out with Rutherford “Rusty” Trawler (Stanley Adams) before the authorities arrive.  According to Holly, Rusty is the ninth richest man in the country under fifty years old.  Following their evening, she expects a marriage proposal from him but later discovers that he is a fraud when his engagement to another woman is announced in the paper and he is revealed to be not only penniless, but in debt.  With the way seemingly more open for Paul, he begins to spend more time with Holly.  Soon, however, he and 2E notice a man lurking outside of their residence.  Paul takes a walk and is followed by this mysterious figure.  This person turns out to be less threatening than he appears, but claims to be Holly’s husband, Doc Golightly (Buddy Ebsen).  Doc has come from Texas in the hopes of bringing back Holly to their home.  She receives him kindly but reminds him that they are no longer married.  When he brings up Fred, who is away in the army, she says that her dear brother will be invited to stay with her in New York.  Despite her calm demeanor, she is clearly rattled by the experience, and asks Paul to take her out to get drunk.  Catholics are capable of self-destructive behavior, of course, but it should not be presented as a logical response to emotional trauma.  Still, when she is more clearheaded, the two of them spend a day together, which includes going to the title jewelry store.  Neither of them has much money, but he does pay a small fee to have a ring he got from a Cracker Jack box to be engraved with letters of her choosing.  Feeling confident in the progress he is making with her, Paul breaks off his arrangement with 2E, even though it means he loses the financial backing he needs to continue his career as a writer.  Yet, when he finally catches up with Holly, she is in the library researching facts about South America.  This is because she has accepted José da Silva Pereira (José Luis de Vilallonga) and is planning on going to Brazil with the businessman.  Paul is understandably disappointed, but continues to be cordial.  He maintains this attitude when a few months go by and Holly invites him to dinner to say goodbye as preamble to leaving the country.  The evening is interrupted, though, when she is arrested for her connection to Sally.  The charges are easily dropped and Paul is there to pick her up from jail in the morning.  As they share a cab, he reveals that José has sent word that they can no longer be together because of her incarceration.  It is her insistence on flying to Brazil that finally angers Paul, and he abruptly gets out of the car throwing the Cracker Jack ring at her.  Finally realizing what a fool she has been, she goes after him, ostensibly to find her cat she had just abandoned and for which he is looking.  The film ends with a found feline and a kiss.

When thinking about Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the famous question from William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet comes to mind: what’s in a name?  This comes from Juliet, who wonders why Romeo’s family, the Montagues, should be such a problem for a Capulet like herself.  In other words, if you were to take them out of their time and place, the persons that are Juliet and Romeo would fall in love with no problems.  It is those very problems that a woman who purposely keeps for herself the moniker “Golightly” is trying to avoid.  Ironically enough, on the day I am writing this review, I spoke with my spiritual director about facing events in our lives that cause anxiety.  Further, earlier I listened to a song called “Bag Lady” by Erykah Badu.  In it, she imagines a woman who carries all her troubles around her like things in luggage.  In addition to being unable to get anywhere easily, people avoid her.  Thus, Badu’s advice is to “pack light.”  Faith teaches a different way of dealing with things that get us down.  The simple answer, and one I discussed with my spiritual director (though we explored it more fully in the moment), is to lay everything at the foot of the Cross in prayer.  In going to His Crucifixion, Jesus carried the weight of everyone’s sin throughout time, all our worries, with Him.  In doing so, He transcended them and redeemed us.  While it is as easy as laying down our burdens with Him in prayer, there is more to the process.  Some can be discouraged when whatever it is we have let go somehow returns.  In the context of the movie, for Holly, this is the past.  She describes herself as a “wild thing” that, if held on too tightly, will bolt that much more quickly.  So many have tried to do this to her in the past, like Doc, and each time she has gone after something bigger and brighter.  Put differently, she is after something she believes will make her life easier.  Unfortunately, that is not how life works.  During my talk with my spiritual director, he reminded me that we are not made for comfort, like chasing after Brazilian millionaires for their money.  Instead, we are made for love, and that is what Paul offers her.

The first time I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I was not impressed with Holly as a character.  I identified with Paul, having been a jilted lover myself, and found her behavior brutish.  I am not as critical now, though I still not feel there is little to recommend this movie.  There is, after all, a scene that takes place in a strip club, but thankfully there is no nudity.  This is all, too, without mentioning the blatant racism of Mr. Yunioshi’s character.  As such, you can take it or leave it.