The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Directed by: George Cukor
Starring: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart
Based on a play of the same name.
It's a light hearted rom-com - a woman's wedding plans get complicated when her ex-husband arrives and she is also interested in another man who visits her house, and she ends up being confused between 3 men. It's a comedy of remarriage - a sub-genre of comedy which was invented to evade the Hays Code - a ridiculously strict American censor code which lasted till 1968 where the characters couldn't have illegal affairs and get away with it. So, they had this comedy of remarriage where a character gets divorced and then meets whoever he/she wants, and by the end of the film ends up marrying the same person again.
The film is about empathy and acceptance, Tracy divorces Dexter because he drinks too much but when she is misunderstood herself by George, she understands how it feels when someone overreacts for your mistakes without trying to understand (and probably let it go). She realizes that everyone has their own flaws, bad habits and the ability to let go is important for a relationship to work. The film is staged and shot like a show or a play, I couldn't observe cinematic visual choices made in the film, and I think that's okay for the tone and the genre of the film. Although the staging, and the timing of the acts were done well - especially in the scene where Tracy intentionally breaks the camera in the beginning.
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