The End of the Affair

Rating:
Summary: Passion with ice in its veins...
Review: A beautiful, intelligent, and provocative rendering of Graham Greene's novel. Julianne Moore shines as Sarah, a woman married to a dull government worker, who makes a bargain with God to sacrifice love for a religion she has heretofore thwarted. Ralph Fiennes quietly smoulders as Ms. Moore's lover, a writer who shuns religion and seems to exist solely on the intensity of his hate. Stephen Rea gives a touching if somewhat pathetic performance as the cuckolded husband. Notice also that whenever he appears on screen, he's either standing out in the rain or coming in from the rain. I understand the metaphor but I do think it comes a little heavy-handed. Ian Hart also shines in a supporting role as the investigator hired to follow Ms. Moore.

The images are haunting, some in particular will stay with you for a long time. Michael Nyman's score is also particularly gorgeous.

I'm giving this four stars because while the film overall is very involving, there is a certain element that remains detached. These aren't the most welcoming characters, and while one has sympathy for Sarah's dilemma you never really feel a warmth for her. And in the end, one wonders - is she some sort of saint with these amazing powers to heal? Still, with that said, I did find this film more emotionally involving than the novel upon which it is based.

All in all, a stunningly visual, finely wrought film with a terrific sense of period.

Rating:
Summary: Leaves the 3-star feeling.
Review: Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes as doomed lovers in The Blitz-time London, dressed in the period costumes, consumed by larger-than-life passion and torn apart by Fate. The score by Michael Nyman. A touches of British eccentricy provided by the shy but reletless investigator and his apprentice son. A plot originating from Graham Greene novel.

Looks like a kit for making a great movie. I think the wrong steps were taken at the assembling stage.

Sometimes it's hard to comprehend seeing the film for the first time where to place the scenes we witness - in the pre-Split period or post-Split. There are so many flashbacks. That's why I began to really pay attention. For my effort I was rewarded with that fateful explosion in Variant 1 and just a short time later in Variant 2, revised and updated. The problem is that it was evident for the first time what resolution Sarah decided to make. But the director felt he has to chew it to help us swallow. That's very thoughtful - why am I annoyed?

The film's erotism is very gratuitous. Neil Jordan for some reason is eager to show us more Julianne's skin than we had a chance to see in Boogie Nights - the movie where her character is a pornstar. The love scenes look like the usual content of a hotel TV softcore channels. I appreciate and treasure female nudity, but to see the two intelligent and "serious" actors wiggling and heaving so many times for so many minutes in such detail is something I'd prefer to avoid.

The characters' current situation is presented without any explanation. What made Sarah marry the dullard? Why do they stay together - Victorian Britain is in the past and divorces are obtainable? And why do we have to sympathize with her lover - the self-absorbed writer, who is not above spying and reporting on his mistress to her husband and his friend? Because he is played by Ralph Fiennes? All the film we are led to believe Sarah is a modern saint, who is ready to give the gift of her love to the very unworthy. And at the end Heavens claim Sarah back, showing the men they do not deserve her. All that seems very artificial.

Maybe one of the reasons for that is the fact that I was raised outside of any religious tradition. Reading Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited I could not understand what's the deal just as I am not in the clear about the religious implications in the film. But somehow I feel I am not alone in my ignorance.

My impression of the film is as muddled as it's direction, but The End of Affair left me with the definite 3-star feeling.

Rating:
Summary: Passionate and Painful
Review: Sometimes the end is only a beginning. That's the case in The End of the Affair, a richly poignant romantic drama based on a semiautobiographical novel first published by British author Graham Greene in 1951.

Here, the end of an affair between novelist Maurice Bendrix (Fiennes) and upper-class housewife Sarah Miles (Moore) is really the starting point for a journey of self-discovery for both. As we see in flashbacks, they launch their romance in London during World War II, shortly after her husband (Rea), a milquetoast civil servant, introduces them at a party.

Soon, they are sneaking off to steam up the sheets (and sofas and rugs) every chance they get--until one day, without warning, Sarah abruptly ends the affair and Maurice is left to wonder why. What made her call it quits, and how he uncovers her reason years later after hiring a private detective to follow her, will change and color forever what love means for each of them.

Director-writer Neil Jordan (The Butcher Boy) has made a lovely, thoughtful film about love, jealousy and religious faith. It is a movie that slowly reveals its layers and continues to resonate long after it's over. Fiennes, his limpid eyes pools of intense longing, is well-suited to the role of passionate lover, while Moore, her flaming auburn locks set off by flattering period costumes, beautifully captures a woman who can do that most delicate of balancing acts, holding onto opposing emotions at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: MASTERPIECE
Review: Director Neil Jordan is a mystic. His filmography clearly shows that he's not interested in the themes usually treated by his fellow companions. From THE COMPANY OF WOLVES to IN DREAMS and INTERVIEW OF A VAMPIRE, Neil Jordan's movies explore the fascinating territory of our intimate fears and fantasies. His last movie THE END OF THE AFFAIR, though not a film dedicated to one of our contemporary myths, is a movie about faith and belief. Ralph Fiennes will not believe in Julianne Moore's exclusive love until he has the written proof of it right in front of his eyes.

Adapted from a novel of Graham Greene and written for the screen by Neil Jordan, THE END OF THE AFFAIR is one of the three best movies I have seen this year so far. Everything in this film is perfect : the musical score, the production design and the actors deserve our admiration. One enters pretty easily in THE END OF THE AFFAIR but it's not so easy to leave it. For days, the tragic love story of Bentrix and Sarah will haunt your dreams.

So if you haven't seen this movie yet, rent it and, believe me, you will buy it in no time. This is a movie to keep.

Bonus features include the trailer of the movie as well as the trailer of James Ivory's THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, another superb movie, filmographies, a featurette and two commentaries recorded by Neil Jordan and Julianne Moore.

A DVD for your library.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good but Missing Something
Review: I Finally got to see this Film.I Dug it in Spots but overall something was missing from making it as Important as The English patient.Julianne Moore was solid.She Looked alot like Madonna from Evita in this Film.The Pacing was alright but their's Drama that doesn't Quite Come out fully.it's a Pretty Good Film but I Have this Film Before but with a Different Plot.The Overall Acting was Good but the Chemistry was Lacking in Spots.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I was expecting much more from Julianna Moore and Ralph Fiennes. They both have such potential but, in my opinion no screen chemistry. From the other reviews I've seen, I'm surprised that others saw so much more. For me it just wasn't there, like it was with Ralph Fiennes in the English patient.

The story is an old one. A writer meets and befriends a British diplomat who not only spends too much time away from home, but has a attractive young wife. The diplomat is Stephen Rea, a man who appears in this movie to be absolutely without sexual passion. Ralph Fiennes plays the part of the writer who lives nearby and obviously has much more time and passion available. Juliana Moore is the young left-alone-often wife. She soon becomes involved with the writer when the busy diplomat suggests that his wife accompany the writer to a movie they both wish to see. The writer is the author of the film.

I found the first part of this movie confusing, as it starts 2 years after the love affair happened and the writer once again renews the friendship with the diplomat. This beginning is interspersed with flashbacks and it takes some figuring to know what timeframe you are seeing.

At this time 2 years after the affair has ended, the husband tells the writer that he thinks his wife is having an affair and is toying with the idea of hiring a private detective. The writer having been previously involved with her and maybe afraid of what the P.I. could find out, reassures him that this couldn't be further from the truth. The husband reassured drops the idea. The writer, still the jealous former lover, does not and wants to know what his former lover is up to. He hires the P.I. himself and comes to some shocking conclusions.

In the meantime the wife wants to talk to her former lover. Ralph Fiennes is cool to the idea. Obviously, she was the one who ended the affair. She tries to make amends but Ralph Fiennes will have none of it.

In the flashbacks what particularly struck me was the matter of fact way Ralph Fiennes and Julianna Moore were with each other when they first made love. I felt it was without life. Subsequent interactions and conversations, seemed very implausible. When Ralph Fiennes says he is jealous of her stocking it is hardly believable. He just doesn't seem there in the scene.

The story from two years past shows how they continued their affair in the buildings during bombing raids when the apartments were evacuated. This eventually becomes their undoing as a bomb strikes nearby that ends the relationship. I won't say what happened, but you know both survive due to the movies two year later telling. The relationship does not however.

When you see during Ralph Fiennes recollection of their last time together, you realize he has no idea why she stopped seeing him. It seems all so cold. Which is why he is not at all understanding to her when he thinks she is involved with someone else. In fact so much he goes to her husband with the news. This only proves to the husband that the writer, his friend was once involved with her.

Later the P.I digs something up that serves to show Ralph Fiennes, why the young wife stopped the affair, he goes to her with this knowledge and she reluctantly admits she has not enjoyed life since they broke up and they start anew. The movie has more twists, but it would be unfair to ruin it for you.

The reason she left him was surprising. The ending of the movie is unusual. I think then you see Ralph Fiennes strong suit. However, all it all it was not very romantic and quite disappointing. Ironically, when I saw the ending I had to admit, that Stephen Rea gets into some odd relationships in his movies.

Rating:
Summary: GORGEOUS, SENSUAL, AND PROFOUNDLY SAD
Review: THE END OF THE AFFAIR is a story of adulterous love affair which turns into the most profound question about life and how we live, who we are. Neil Jordan made a gorgeous film out of one of the greatest novel of the 20th century. His direction has never been so mature and perfect as this before. Replacing the cold, cynical arrogance of Grahame Greene's hero with the sexuality and sensuality between Ralph Feines and Julianne Moore, Jordan stays faithful to the basic idea of the novel (of man versus the eternal, absolute superior being) while opening it up to a bigger public. The fundamental idea of the novel is human intelect versus the absolute, all-knowing God, while the film is condentrates on love-- human love versus the eternal, spiritual love (and God controls it). Greene's work is, I think, eccentially Catholic, while the film is more open. Indeed, by making it a love story and humanizing the Maurice considerably, Jordan made the eternal question that this story asks accessible to everybody who had ever been in love. The beauty of the film is also the beauty of its imagery, and the trasfer captures magnificently the amber tone, the semi-dark sensuality of the original film image. Another joy of this DVD is the special features; two commentary tracks--one from director Jordan and the other from actress Julianne Moore (whose performance, by the way, is the best acting an American actress has done in years)-- give a lot of insights and help you a lot to really understand the story and what it means to you; because both Jordan and Moore are talking about what this beautiful spiritual film and its making meant to them. Great DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I adore this film, which is one of the most passionate romance movies I have ever seen. The acting from Oscar nominated Julianne Moore is first rate and the London/Brighton set pieces are flawless. Also, there is the presence of gorgeous Ralph Fiennes, exposing his sexy buttocks while making love to Julianne - that scene alone is enough reason to see The End of the Affair!

Rating:
Summary: Sensual and Mystic
Review: Each of these terms applies to this film version of Graham Green's classic novel. The performances are sterling throughout, particular Julianne Moore's interpretation of Sarah Miles. As I subsequently read the original book, it was easy to mentally picture the literary figures as the actors who portrayed them on film.

The only major deviation from the novel is that Jordan's Sarah does resume her lovemaking with Bendrix, which does not happen in the original story. I found this unfortunate as it blunts the electrifying point Green was making. Still, even in this film, there is reason to doubt that Sarah really intends to go away with Maurice for good. After the affair is renewed, Sarah dreams about the explosion and Maurice's apparent death, which sent her in search of God. When she awakens, she tells Bendrix that she needs a few days of relaxation before the arguments begin. When Bendrix assures her that Henry isn't the arguing type, she replies "I wasn't talking about Henry." It's as though she knows that she cannot have both Maurice and God.

All told, this film is a wonderful experience. It can be enjoyed simply on the level of a moving love story, or it can be taken as a lesson in spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: The End of the Soundtrack
Review: As a director, Neil Jordan has a deft touch in telling emotional stories about people's (or vampires') discoveries about each other. Except, in this remake, the pieces just don't fall together.

The problem doesn't seem to be the script, which is in turns charming and frustrating. It relies too heavily flashbacks to explain characters different points of view. Regretfully, the flashbacks are not distinctive enough, and they merely serve to confuse.

The acting quality has a strange quality as well. Stephen Rea is kind of one-note as the mopey husband, but the script seems to call for nothing more. Fiennes handles his part well, but Moore, as usual, seems cold and distant.

Finally, I feel this movie is ill-served by Michael Nyman's score. So often his music integrates well with a movie, but in this case, it repeatedly intrudes, much like the over-obvious musical cues in Eyes Wide Shut.

In case your video watching has been a little light lately, this movie is enough of a downer to give you something to think about. Otherwise, I would only recommend this to diehard fans of the people involved.