The End of the Affair **** (1999, Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea) – Classic Movie Review 831

Writer-director Neil Jordan’s 1999 movie is much better than the 1954 Hollywood-ised version (with Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson) and it’s an excellent and edgy though still not entirely satisfactory film of one of Graham Greene’s finest novels.

Ralph Fiennes is just right as novelist/writer Maurice Bendix, who, one rainy London night in 1946, has a chance meeting with Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, (Julianne Moore). Succumbing to jealousy and with his obsession for Sarah rekindled, Maurice tries to unravel why Sarah abruptly ended their affair of two years earlier in WW2 London.

Employing a detective to do his work, he arranges to have Sarah followed and finds that she has turned to God, not another man as he thought, after they are bombed. It turns out that she has made a pact with God that she will never see him again to save his life during the London Blitz.

It certainly helps if you’re a Roman Catholic to understand the full meaning, resonancy and potency of this odd story. Jordan has no problem at all with making a lot out of the 40s English atmosphere and the performances. And it’s a typically beautifully crafted British period movie. Anthony Pratt’s evocative set designs, Sandy Powell’s costumes and Christine Beveridge’s hair and makeup design are exactly in period, while Roger Pratt’s Oscar-nominated cinematography is moodily eye-catching and Michael Nyman’s score is a considerable asset.

But Greene’s story sometimes stalls and occasionally lacks potency here, though Jordan’s literate and conscientious screenplay won a Bafta as Best Adapted Screenplay. With Fiennes perfectly chosen, the casting of the American star Moore is a touch and go idea. But her performance comes off very successfully through her sheer intensity, and she was Oscar nominated. Though, since so many fine British actresses could have played the part, you could ask what’s the point of importing an American, however distinguished?

The End of the Affair comes from the imaginative, challenging director of Mona Lisa, The Crying Game (1992), The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto and Interview with the Vampire.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 831

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