Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.
Autumn in New York is a fairly conventional terminal-illness romance that follows well-worn melodramatic beats. The plot offers little surprise — older playboy falls for younger dying woman, learns to love — and lands squarely in formulaic territory. Richard Gere and Winona Ryder deliver competent performances that keep the film watchable, with Ryder in particular bringing some warmth to her role. The New York autumn cinematography is attractive but unremarkable. The film breaks no new ground in the dying-lover subgenre and its tearjerker ending feels telegraphed from the opening act. A serviceable but forgettable romantic melodrama.