Publication Date: 12-15-2025

The Princess Bride (1987) review

Dir. Rob Reiner

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Remembering Rob Reiner

1947 – 2025

The Princess Bride opens with an amiable setup – a grandfather paying a visit to his grandson, sick in bed with a seasonal cold. The young boy, played by Fred Savage and all his youthful, wide-eyed wonder, is glued to his video-games until his grandfather, played perfectly by Peter Falk, offers to read him a story that has been cherished by his family. “Has it got any sports in it?,” the boy asks optimistically. Not quite.

The book is called “The Princess Bride,” and concerns Buttercup (Robin Wright), a beautiful young woman in the Renaissance Era who orders around an obedient farm-boy named Westley (Cary Elwes) until she comes to realize she’s in love with him. Once she discovers her feelings, the two form a relationship that ostensibly ends in tragedy when Westley leaves on a ship that is attacked by pirates and is presumed dead. Years later, Buttercup reluctantly agrees to marrying the far less romantic Humperdink (Chris Sarandon), but the wedding is halted when she’s kidnapped by a squirrely Sicillian named Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), a giant named Fezzik (André the Giant), and a swordsman named Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin). Inigo is the only one with a cogent motive here, seeking to avenge his father’s death at the hands of a man with an extra finger.

The four are followed by a Zorro-like man donning all black and impeccable combat skills when faced with the opportunity. A great scene ensues between the man and Vizzini when the two are faced with two drinks, one of which contaminated with poison, as a challenge to see who lives and who will die. The scene is a hilariously written, dizzying exercise for the viewer. Shall I ruin the early twist in the film? I think you probably have already guessed it.

Rather than sitting awkwardly perched on the cusp of a farcical parody of adventure films or tight-lipped as it remains a convincing tale of swords and sweethearts, The Princess Bride plays the field amidst the gray area, having fun with its inability to be easily defined. It enjoys itself perhaps a little too much as it gets its characters to unironically twist themselves in a web of semantics and enjoys being as enigmatic in its genre amalgamation of a swashbuckler, a romance, an adventure, and a fantasy as it is charismatic. Sporadically interrupting the story is the little boy, who bemoans the story’s prolific inclusion of kissing, particularly between Buttercup and Westley, as you’d expect, in a way that echoes that humorous way young children are so repulsed by adults and their affectionate sides.

“Do we have to hear the kissing part?,” the boy asks his grandfather. “Someday, you may not mind so much,” he tells him with a quiet inflection of experience in his voice.

The Princess Bride‘s competence as entertainment is not as surprising as its ability to convincingly blend a variety of fantasy elements into a film that ebbs and flows as naturally as it does. Infrequently, the pacing becomes an issue because, for example, after we’re as helpless as Buttercup being swarmed by eels in a vast ocean, we’re aimlessly wandering through the countryside with Fezzik’s seven-foot-tall self. This unevenness never lasts more than a few minutes, and I’m sure that it’s a tonal disruption most won’t even notice, especially those so swept away by the aura of it all.

The film was adapted from William Goldman’s novel by Goldman himself, who doesn’t hesitate to get director Rob Reiner working overtime in order to bring his novel to a diverse and grand life on-screen. The two work to create a film that’s democratic in the way that it can be embraced by everyone – someone who likes their fantasies with action and someone who prefers love and dreaded lip-locking will find both here in satisfying portions. Reiner is a slick satirist, as seen in This is Spinal Tap three years prior, and even channels some of that energy with a film that continues to inject satire in a boldly fluid way. You have to be deeply familiar with the idea of satire and structure to fully appreciate what Reiner is doing, but you don’t have to be a Rhode Scholar to simply enjoy the film on its own merits, something that isn’t too hard at all.

The Princess Bride is loved by my generation and it initially seems as a curious pick for many young people’s favorite. It’s a film you’d expect to be predictably dated judging solely from the title and its release date, and if you dare saw its initial box office haul, you’d probably draw the conclusion that people even saw it that way when it was initially released. It’s the kind of film that, I feel, became elevated to the status it so comfortably sits at today because enough people allowed their curiosity to make the decision the night they sat down to watch it, presumably with low expectations, and the film and its characters found a way into their hearts as if it had the key all along. It’s fun and whimsical, cheery and good-natured, with a plethora of character actors who embrace their wilder, more carefree sides against a variety of settings.

Starring: Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, Peter Falk, and Fred Savage. Directed by: Rob Reiner.