It’s the longest day of the year, at least if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. If I were a darker, meaner person, today’s fine romance selection would be one of the film versions of The Great Gatsby, in which Daisy Buchanan opines, “Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it!” But since we haven’t missed it, we’ll have to watch something else. Hopefully something happier! My choice is Barefoot in the Park, a delightful romp featuring Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, and late 60s New York.
It starts with a wedding, that of young lawyer Redford and the Bohemian-aspirant Fonda. After the wedding comes their Greenwich Village apartment, which is truly the third character in the film and the marriage. It might be an atypical romance, but it is a rather adorable film.
I won’t discuss whether any of the DC and Boston apartments we lived in when we were first married might make the film biographically appealing, but I will say that it’s fun and surprisingly fresh. I’ll be watching it tonight with something fizzy and cool and suggest you do the same.
Emma Barry 