The End of the Affair (1999)

Love! Hate! Straight faces!

Writer Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) and married Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore) had a love affair for several years until she abruptly ended it. Two years later, Maurice meets her husband who suspects she is carrying on with someone; Maurice hires a private investigator to follow her, and falls in love with Sarah again.

This is probably a tear-jerking, steamy, and sentimental love story but I just didn't feel it. Fiennes, Moore and Stephen Rea, as Sarah's husband, play 95% of their scenes in slow-motion, with completely expressionless faces staring blankly into each other's eyes while their stoic voices recite passionate lines. I suppose it's meant to be very sophisticated and posh, but it seemed phony and empty to me. The character I liked best was Parkis, the private investigator, played by Ian Hart. (Note to Harry Potter fans: This movie has Professor Quirrell, Lucius Malfoy, and Voldemort all together!) Parkis was the one who tied up all the loose ends and was the only character who seemed emotionally open and honest. A nice subplot involving his son made me smile at the end, despite the vacuous love story.

The excellent WWII-period sets and costumes gave the movie a lot of atmosphere; it was the detached acting style that left me feeling nothing. Also, the story constantly switched from present to flashback making it a bit confusing and the addition of a miraculous, spiritual thread was unnecessary and awkward. I didn't connect with the characters or the love story; 2.5 stars. September 9, 2008

'The end of the affair'

Wonderful movie, but then I was brought up in England during the era so it is very familiar in all aspects. Just adore Ralph Fiennes. June 30, 2008

A terrible adaptation and performance

Not long ago I read Graham Greene's wonderful, "The End of the Affair". I was so impressed that I sought out a film version, and was again captivated with the 1955 production starring Van Johnson, Deborah Kerr, and Basil Rathbone. Loving the story and wanting more, I obtained the 1999 version starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, and Stephen Rea. What a disappointment. Typical modern Hollywood alteration and cheapening of a great story and truth.

If I may expand a bit, in the order of least importance to greatest importance: Julianne Moore is only minimally attractive, and her flat acting performance in this role makes her even less so. The sex and nudity was gratuitous. (Wrapping this piece in a Graham Greene cloak does not make it less the soft core presentation that it is). The WWII England aura seems to have been diminished. Perhaps when the original film was made, memories were fresh . . . now they have faded (like this film). And, finally and most importantly . . .

Graham Greene was a spiritual man, in his own fashion. He held a complex but serious theology, which was usually expressed in his written work. This film version, however, must have him figuratively rolling over in his grave. The ending of the story has been substantially altered. In Greene's original version, God's hand moves mysteriously, complexly, but benevolently. The heroine makes painful but righteous ultimate decisions. In this modern adaptation, all is changed. God seems cruel. The players make selfish decisions, falsely painted as "righteous" under the banner of "pursuit of happiness". I was shocked and greatly disappointed when I viewed this. I suppose for many, this is a superior feel-good ending. I thought it was a crude violation of Greene's written masterpiece.

Watch this one if you will, but please don't neglect seeing the 1955 film version, or if you are a reader, Greene's novel by the same title.


March 21, 2008

torrid romance set in war-ravaged london

This excellent movie -- released in 1999 and based on the slim novel by Graham Greene published in 1951 -- wholly baptizes contemporary viewers into the cultural context of a time and place that nowadays exists only in the memories of those who were of age during WWII.

But even those of us who for the first time encounter Greene's works (whether his novels or the several popular movies based on them) in the twenty-first century can thank God for these reality-saturated tales, which, so much like the stories of the Old Testament, demonstrate that the God who created the universe is not, after all, a prissy protestant church lady, unwilling to soil white gloves in gripping encounters with messy, irrational humans.

Graham, who converted to Roman Catholicism as an adult, seems in the stories he tells to be well acquainted with a God who is not too nice for humanity -- not even for the foremost of sinners, including a cynical best-selling and critically acclaimed novelist.

In this latest cinematic interpretation of Greene's novel of forbidden love, understated Ralph Fiennes plays the lonely writer who stumbles unwittingly and unwillingly into a relationship with the God of the Bible when he has an extramarital affair with a believer. Beautiful Julianne Moore is the tormented adultress, whose repentance, while it lasts, transforms those around her. February 28, 2008

A Glacial look at English Blitz love

I purposely avoided this film when it was theatrically released.The opinions were too varied for me to care enough to see for myself.So, now that I own the DVD it was time. BURRRRRRR!!!! What a cold and repressed piece of film.It's hard to put into words exactly what was so disconnecting for me about "The End of the Affair";was it the detached performances of Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes who are supposed to be passionately and irretrievably in passionate lust for each other during the Blitz of London?;was it the terribly disjointed way in which the script unfolded never allowing me to feel enough sympathy/empathy for any character? was it the terribly cliched dialog that tried to make this film seem as though Bogart and Bergman should be playing the roles? Or was it the immensely disturbing soundtrack of Michael Hyman who insisted on replaying the same infernal "lone theme" throughout this incredibly tedious and cold ,repressed piece of clap?
There are more than enough reasons to look elsewhere for a romantic WW2 tragic romance.This was just a tragic film.PASS! February 2, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...