Essentially, our current soulmates or significant others (who those who are lucky enough to find one) are all strangers at the very beginning, so are Natalie Wood’s Macy’s girl Angie Rossini and Steve McQueen’s odd-jobbing musician Rocky Papasano, both in their salad days, they do make an adorable couple, but before they go down that inevitable road, there is a snag here in Robert Mulligan’s LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER, she is pregnant with his child before they can get to know each other.

Pluckily wrestling with the contentious topics like one night stand and abortion, Mulligan’s follow-up of his pièce-de-résistance TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962) is tonally friskier and visually more fluid, especially through its opening passage of a jam-packed musician hiring session, which channels the two protagonists together when she drops the bombshell, and its coda on the crowded intersection right outside the Macy’s, the influence of French New Wave is in evidence, an emancipated mobility runs through these exterior sequences, engenders a revelatory frisson of realism that heralds the footsteps of the New Hollywood.

There are satisfaction aplenty in watching the smoldering interplay between Angie and Rocky which culminates with the moment we await (it is made in the 60s, thus a mainstream American movie would be unconceivable to advocate a pro-choice prog stance), when the abortion is scotched in the eleventh hour, and Rocky, a hardened bachelor, is finally if begrudgingly willing to tie the knot. Much to his disappointment, his purportedly mature overtures only backfire grossly and exasperate Angie, whose modern if slightly paradoxical view on love cannot stomach a shotgun marriage, she wants him to marry her because he loves her, not because there is a bun in the oven.

Mesmerically acting with a steely resolve which possibly she hasn’t exhibited before, Wood reaps her third and (unfortunately) final Oscar nomination by individuating Angie’s plight and independence with an alternately harrowing and delightful seriocomic immediacy and force (the boisterousness of a congested Italian-American household is choreographed and acted with great momentum); McQueen, on the other hand, also ups the ante with delineating Rocky’s persona as amusingly befogged, self-effacing and philosophical in front of the dilemma, a very disarming and likable characterization that is diametrically different from his trademark hard-boiled, taciturn, lone hero screen alter ego, one cannot help but wonder whether Clint Eastwood has that chops in him as well, can he hold that “better wed than dead” placard without any scintilla of machismo? Seems unlikely.

LWTPS also marks our beloved TV star Tom Bosley’s film debut, his Anthony has no qualms about being a fallback in Angie’s plan, bringing about enough lulz with his humble self-knowledge and also comically reseting audience’s first impression of his maladroitness, which could be a trustworthy indicator of a bad match. Plaudits should also be granted to Edie Adams’s canine lover Barbie, Rocky’s casual bedmate who can yap “You want me to find you a doctor?” like no one else could, in the real world, she and Rocky are more aptly to end up together, but through a film’s life-affirming filter, LWTPS is nonetheless, a scrumptious confection with its winning candidness and a proper moral backbone.

referential entries: Mulligan’s INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (1965, 6.6/10); TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962, 9.1/10)

通常情況下，一部謎之尷尬的愛情電影一定拋不開這幾點(diǎn)。狗血的設(shè)定；流水賬的劇情；不能自圓其說的邏輯；表演夸張的男女。基本上只要踩上這幾點(diǎn)，一部標(biāo)榜著自己是愛情電影的電影就基本玩完。當(dāng)然，踩著上述幾點(diǎn)中大多數(shù)的愛情片也是如此。哪怕你在其中一點(diǎn)上做的很出色，但是其他都是扣分項(xiàng)，那最終還是不及格。

好的愛情電影我們可以舉出來很多例子，他們會(huì)讓觀眾們相信真善美就在我們身邊，而差勁的愛情片，只會(huì)堆砌起來一個(gè)美好的謊言，大家都不信，這個(gè)時(shí)候都會(huì)認(rèn)為這是電影。

并不一定年代久遠(yuǎn)的電影就是好電影，雖然它能給你一種回憶，并且是帶著一定的年代感的回憶，但始終并不能完全的將這種回憶轉(zhuǎn)化為自身優(yōu)秀的能力。今天給大家推薦的這部具有年代感的影片，就是這樣一個(gè)舉例。一部年代久遠(yuǎn)的電影，一部年代久遠(yuǎn)的愛情電影，本身并不是很出色，大家都喜歡給他一些感情分。

《陌生人之戀》說的是一對(duì)青年男女經(jīng)過一次意外的邂逅，女方懷孕了，找到男方后，兩人決定去墮胎。臨到了男方后悔了，于是終止了這次危險(xiǎn)的嘗試。男方不知不覺的愛上了女方，然后兩人最終突破重圍在一起。

這是一個(gè)一句話就能說清楚的故事。這個(gè)故事主要想告訴我們，陌生人之間也能產(chǎn)生愛情的火花，然后有情人終成眷屬。這大概是導(dǎo)演的最初的想法。然而，本片當(dāng)時(shí)的噱頭卻并不這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)。而是用“最早以墮胎問題為題材的寫實(shí)愛情影片”這個(gè)顯得有點(diǎn)大了，而縱觀全片，本片中描繪的墮胎問題，并不是主要問題，僅僅是維系男女之間愛情的一個(gè)引子。況且導(dǎo)演并沒有在片中提及墮胎問題的嚴(yán)重性，然后就草草收?qǐng)?，這不得不讓人懷疑導(dǎo)演僅僅是像今天很多影片營銷方一樣，做一個(gè)噱頭而已。

這里不得不提及一下美國的“墮胎問題”了。在19世紀(jì)中葉以前，美國大多數(shù)州只允許胎動(dòng)以前墮胎。1845年，美國馬薩諸塞州第一個(gè)將墮胎視為犯罪。到1910年，除肯塔基州外，美國各州均將墮胎定為重罪。其后愈治愈烈的人權(quán)運(yùn)動(dòng)和婦女運(yùn)動(dòng)，讓美國婦女在1973年取得了墮胎權(quán)。

2003年11月5日，時(shí)任總統(tǒng)的布什簽署了《禁止晚期墮胎法案》，這一方案從此成為美國的法律。然而在奧巴馬上任后的第一周，他就簽署了一項(xiàng)命令，撤銷了布什政府執(zhí)行了多年的禁令。

這就是民主自由的美國社會(huì)的現(xiàn)狀，同時(shí)也是尊重人權(quán)的美國社會(huì)的真實(shí)寫照。墮胎問題由來已久，因?yàn)槊绹鴮儆诘貜V人稀的國家，因此人口長期處于不足的狀態(tài)/我們，我們可以看到的是，東部發(fā)達(dá)地區(qū)的人口幾近飽和，但是在西部地區(qū)，美國依舊是長期維持著地廣人稀的窘境。在這樣的大前提下， 美國政府自然不希望生育問題得到太大限制，因此，在美國，長期以來墮胎一直被認(rèn)為是違法的。

而打著寫實(shí)主義的本片誕生的環(huán)境是上世紀(jì)六十年代，那更是一個(gè)魔幻的時(shí)間點(diǎn)。當(dāng)時(shí)全球范圍內(nèi)掀起的崇尚自由運(yùn)動(dòng)在美國也是如此。戰(zhàn)爭問題，信仰危機(jī)等等，美國社會(huì)爆發(fā)了前所未有的運(yùn)動(dòng)。而正是那個(gè)時(shí)候開始，美國國內(nèi)的女權(quán)運(yùn)動(dòng)興起，此后，墮胎問題得到了重視，女性們重新被賦予了自由生育的權(quán)利。

當(dāng)然，本片中體現(xiàn)的墮胎問題并沒有得到確切的描述，而僅僅是當(dāng)作一個(gè)噱頭產(chǎn)生話題的。所以，這部電影的質(zhì)量就下降了。因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)代生活中，我們可以很清楚這種營銷手段究竟是怎么一回事。而看看別的點(diǎn)，比如說前文提到的流水賬劇情，狗血的設(shè)定，不能自圓其說的邏輯，單就表演夸張的男女并不存在，因?yàn)槟信魅斯_實(shí)是演技派，飾演的片中的角色也很貼切。女主甚至還提名了奧斯卡。這就是對(duì)于演技的肯定。除此之外，本篇可謂是占足了這幾個(gè)爛片的點(diǎn)。

大多數(shù)網(wǎng)友都覺得導(dǎo)演的功力確實(shí)差了點(diǎn)，因此，才會(huì)將這樣一個(gè)有意思的故事拍的很一般。對(duì)于這樣的評(píng)論我深表認(rèn)同，一部好電影的誕生一定是占據(jù)了天時(shí)地利人和的，任何人想要一蹴而就，基本上不可能。而本片正是用一個(gè)反面的例子來說明這個(gè)道理。哪怕是老電影，也有著不很優(yōu)秀的作品，甚至于平庸。

當(dāng)然，繼續(xù)探討美國這個(gè)自由的國度，然后參看這部影片的話，你就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這可能是一個(gè)笑話。即使是全世界最為自由的六十年代，唯獨(dú)不見了美國人搖旗吶喊，這可謂是最大的諷刺了。