The End of the Affair Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)February 6th, 2000
The End of the Affair (1999)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
Member: Online Film Critics Society
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart. Directed by Neil Jordan. Rated R.
Neil Jordan is one of those writer-directors who don't quite grasp the first rule of literary adaptations: what reads well on the page doesn't always translate well to celluloid. I haven't read Graham Greene's The End of the Affair on which this movie of the same name is based, but the film seems so soulless, the dialogue so archetypically "romantic", it is fairly obvious that Jordan took Greene's prose to heart. Even the sex scenes are perfunctory.
The story is actually a beguilingly simple love triangle that could have worked wonderfully had it not been hampered by a deadly slow pace and pretentious, irrelevant philosophizing. Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes), a novelist, has an affair with Sarah (Julianne Moore, nominated for a Golden Globe) in 1944. Sarah abruptly ends the relationship and Maurice doesn't know why. She doesn't love her husband (Stephen Rea) and her husband Henry doesn't really love her either; their marriage is a sham, a useless tradition, a habit they find difficult to drop.
It is now 1946 and on a rainy night Maurice encounters Henry walking in the park. Henry is worried that Sarah is cheating on him. Maurice offers Henry the services of a private detective. He staunchly refuses and Maurice leaves, but on his way out, he passes Sarah on the stairs. The old flame lights again inside him; out of jealousy he hires a private detective (Ian Hart, providing the only flashes of wit in this decidedly humorless drama) to follow Sarah around.
I'm not going to reveal the reason Sarah ended the affair in this review -- we don't find out until more than halfway through and I suppose it's one of the secrets the movie has -- but I will say that it's not particularly satisfying. It introduces a religious subtext to an already thematically confused script and it gives Jordan the ill- advised opportunity to insert a second rambling voiceover that tries to add philosophical meaning to the proceedings. I prefer movies that let the viewer come to his own conclusions rather than ones that spell everything out via a convenient narrator. The End of the Affair has two.
Effectively stripping the film of almost all dramatic tension, the characters deliver their lines with all the spontaneity of a regurgitated Shakesperean monologue. At any given moment, I was expecting Fiennes to turn to the camera and start detailing what he was planning to say next film noir-style. At least Ian Hart as the PI brings some much-needed air of humanity into the movie; his bumbling gumshoe is the only clue that we are watching real people rather than store mannequins.
If I was never emotionally involved, the movie at least kept my attention, mostly thanks to the hypnotic Michael Nyman score and the production design -- I have seen nary a more gorgeous "bleak" look. Jordan, who made The Butcher Boy, one of my favorite films of 1998, is a superb technical director. Even the otherwise turgid In Dreams was nearly saved by its top-notch visual style. Here, too, the camera is always in the right place, slow motion film stock is used effectively and Jordan just all-around knows what he is doing. Too bad he has what seem to be malign intentions: to subdue the actors until they come off as robots.
As if all that wasn't enough, the movie refuses to end. The credits finally roll after about seven scenes where I thought, "this has to be the final one." Jordan follows what should have been the ending with a bunch of pointless sequences that don't tie up loose ends as much as they unnecessarily drag out the plot.
That said, it's easy to see why The End of the Affair appeals to award voters and many critics. It's old-fashioned, supposedly representing a temporary return to the good old days of cinematic bliss when movies could sweep you off your feet with their sheer romanticism. With so much avant-garde making a triumphant appearance this past year, the older crowd's tendency to stick by this movie is understandable. But I prefer the new over the old if "old" means pretense and soullessness. It's good to see a filmmaker defy trends, but I'd rather see it done in new ways rather than resorting to methods used decades ago.
Grade: C+
©2000 Eugene Novikov
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