A Little Romance

Lauren King, a "book-smart" and affluent 13-year-old American girl, lives in Paris with her mother and stepfather. Daniel Michon, a "street-smart" and movie-loving 13-year-old French boy, lives with his taxi-driver father. The two meet and fall in love in the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, where Lauren's mother is becoming romantically interested in movie director George de Marco. Daniel and Lauren meet Julius Santorin, a quirky elderly man, in an accident. Daniel is unimpressed, but Julius fascinates Lauren with stories of his life, telling of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever. At Lauren's birthday party, which friends Londet and Natalie attend, Daniel punches George for making a crude suggestion about Lauren's current relationship, and her mother forbids the two to date.

Telling her family will return to America soon, Lauren hatches a plan to travel to Venice with Daniel. Though they have money from a horse race (in which Julius proves to be bad at gambling, but good at pickpocketing the racegoers), they cannot cross the border without an adult. With Julius's help, the pair travel by train but miss their connection to Verona after Julius gets into a conversation during an Italian border stop. In the meantime, Lauren's family spark an international investigation, believing she has been abducted.

They hitch a ride with American tourists Bob and Janet Duryea, who are headed to Venice. In Verona, the travelers go out to dinner, where Bob discovers that his wallet has been stolen. Even though their horse-race winnings were left on the train in Julius' vest, Julius offers to pay the bill with cash, perplexing Lauren and irritating Daniel, who suspects he stole it. The following morning, the Duryeas notice Lauren's "missing child" picture in an Italian newspaper. Julius has also seen the paper and intercepts Lauren and Daniel on their way back to the hotel, angry that Lauren lied to him about their true reason for going to Venice and that everyone will think he is a kidnapper.

Because they cannot return to the hotel, they join a bicycle race to escape Verona. When Julius falls behind, Lauren persuades Daniel to go back for him. They find him collapsed from exhaustion. Daniel worms his background out of Julius, who also confesses that he both picked Bob's pocket and stole the money for their train tickets, disappointing Lauren. Lauren then reveals that she will move back to the United States permanently in two weeks. She wanted to take a gondola to the Bridge of Sighs and kiss Daniel so they could love each other forever. She berates Julius by dismissing all his stories as lies. Julius admits he lied about some things but insists the legend can be true. Daniel decides he still wants to go to Venice with Lauren, and Julius joins them.

In Venice, they spend the night in St. Mark's Basilica, until a chance meeting with the Duryeas sets them on the run again hours before sunset. Julius hides them in a movie theater and gives them his remaining cash, promising to return a half-hour before sunset. However, when they are inside, Julius turns himself into the police searching for them; despite being attacked by an inspector, he refuses to reveal Lauren and Daniel's whereabouts. The two fall asleep during the film and wake with just a few minutes remaining. They run to find a gondola, but most are already taken. They eventually find an available gondolier; he takes them within sight of the bridge, but refuses to go further just as sunset arrives because they did not pay him the full amount. Daniel pushes him into the canal and, as the bells of the Campanile begin chiming, the two pull the gondola by hand along the pilings toward the bridge, enabling the gondola to glide underneath. While the bells are still pealing, they kiss and embrace. In the police station, Julius reveals their whereabouts, assuming they have accomplished their goal.

After a few days pass, Lauren is preparing to leave for America. Before entering the family's car, she notices Daniel standing across the street, waiting to say goodbye to her. Her mother objects, but her stepfather, having warmed to the boy, allows her to go ahead. Pledging not to become “like everybody else”, Lauren and Daniel share a final kiss. She looks up and notices Julius waving to her from a nearby bench. She rushes over, embraces him, and bids him farewell, then runs back to the car. As the car pulls away, Daniel and Lauren wave to each other for the last time, as Daniel leaps into the air.

Filming took place in Paris, France, as well as Verona, Venice and Veneto, Italy.

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described the film as "so ponderous it seems almost mean spirited. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie about boorish American tourists and felt sorry for the tourists—which is one of Mr. Hill's achievements here. I'm sure nothing mean-spirited was intended, but such is the film's effect. This may be the main hazard when one sets out to make a film so relentlessly sweet-tempered that it winds up—like Pollyana—alienating everyone not similarly affected."[3] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that it "gives us two movie kids in a story so unlikely I assume it was intended as a fantasy. And it gives us dialog and situations so relentlessly cute we want to squirm."[7] Dale Pollock of Variety wrote, "The first film out of Orion Pictures' stable, 'A Little Romance' emerges as a classy winner. A charming blend of youthful innocence and guile, though the George Roy Hill film will need careful marketing to find its desired audience, which is larger than many may suppose."[8] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and called it "a beguiling light romantic comedy ... It's a credit to the film's young actors, director George Roy Hill, and the screenplay that we as adults manage to care for these kids."[9] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times stated, "If it's about something, I can't discern what it is. But the unpatronizing treatment of the young people and the strong appeal of the actors who play the parts make for an invigorating film."[10] Judith Martin of The Washington Post wrote, "The intentional comedy in the film always seems on the verge of working, but then is quickly bludgeoned to death ... Several of the actors have genuinely satirical approaches to characters who are too weighted with clichés to allow lightness."[11] David Ansen of Newsweek remarked, "In its sweet, witty and modestly sentimental way, it delivers the romantic frissons that many star-studded, would-be blockbusters of the heart lumber in vain to achieve."[12]

In a retrospective review for DVD Movie Guide, David Williams called the film "one of those gems that doesn't seem too great on the surface, but manages to lift your spirits in such a way that when it's over, it makes you glad you ignored your initial feelings and checked it out anyway." Williams applauded the performances as "engaging from top-to-bottom", singling out Olivier's portrayal of Julius, the mischievous escort and matchmaker.[13] In his review on Movie Metropolis, John J. Puccio wrote, "It's a lovely tale of pure and innocent love and the lengths that people involved in such a love will go to in their desire to ensure it. The movie can hardly fail to please even the most jaded audiences."[14] In his review in DVD Talk, David Langdon concluded, "A Little Romance fits into that category we might call the children's film for adults. It's smart, well written, acted and directed. If anything it will be remembered as Diane Lane's first movie and one of Laurence Olivier's last. The DVD is above average in all categories except audio but it is worth a look."[2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on reviews from 29 critics.[15]

The film is recognized by the American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated[17]

The Tamil film Panneer Pushpangal released in 1981 and directed by P. Vasu and Santhana Barathy was inspired by this movie.

• A Little Romance at IMDb
• A Little Romance at AllMovie
• A Little Romance at the TCM Movie Database
• A Little Romance at the American Film Institute Catalog
• A Little Romance at Box Office Mojo