Movie: The End of the Affair

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Gone but not forgotten.

Plot Overview

When his London war ministry position demands a lot of his time, Henry Miles (Stephen Rea) allows his wife Sarah (Julianne Moore) to be escorted to the cinema by his novelist buddy Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes.) They fall into a passionate love affair—over a dish of onions of all things—which she later ends abruptly with­out explan­ation. Two years later a chance encounter of the two men leads to Bendrix hiring a private investi­gator Parkis (Ian Hart) to discover who sup­planted them both. His report is “not a blank page” but a nar­rative twisted enough for a worthy author.

Ideology

The love-struck pair appear to be dyed-in-the-wool pagans, but Sarah's mom had baptized her Catholic when she was a child “hoping it would take.” They didn't practice it in the home as Sarah's father was Jewish. Now when she is pursued by the hound of heaven, she seeks solace in an empty church, but not knowing the proper posture for praying in church she gives the gum­shoe the impression she was there just for a good cry. Only much later with the retrieval of her diary could it be ascer­tained that, “I've only made two promises in my life. One was to marry Henry, the other is to stop seeing you. And I'm too weak to keep either.” The struggle is per, (Eccl. 5:4-5) “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.”

A love triangle is complicated enough with­out the intro­duction of a wild card. Maurice being an attentive writer observes a whole con­stel­lation of details he can't quite make sense of. It's much as when a character in an Ace Atkins novel “told the senator that he lived so long because the devil took care of his own. Isn't that just so wonderful and evil and poetic?” (66) Maurice vents his ironic feelings on an old mechanical mill: “I hate you, God. I hate you as though you existed.”

Production Values

“” (1999) was written and directed by Neil Jordan, as adapted from the acclaimed novel, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea. All three were excellent as were Jason Isaacs playing a young but experienced priest and Ian Hart a sly cockney detective. The main characters were given ample time to develop their parts. Moore was inserted into some revealing top­less scenes.

MPA rated it R for scenes of strong sexuality. Michael Nyman's score is melodic­ally romantic. The cinema­tog­raphy is beautifully shot in 1940s–50s war-gripped England. Flash­backs, repeats, and pace changes were skill­fully employed to keep us on our toes. Runtime is 101 minutes.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

I rather like Graham Greene although I hadn't read this one of his. He's masterful at developing complex stories. Some­thing will necessarily be lost to squeeze a book into a movie, but enough remains to hold interest. The religion is general rather than parochial and so subtle it's like to drive an atheist up a wall who has enough on his pretend plate. It's not heavy on war action, just a few bombs, an old wound, and random comments.

This was a good job of turning a novel into a picture.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.

Works Cited

Scripture was quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.

Atkins, Ace. White Shadow. Copyright © 2006 by Ace Atkins. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2007. Print.