Capone gives FATHER GEEK and you a peek under the skirt of secrecy surrounding Neil Jordan's END OF THE AFFAIR...
Hey Harry. Capone in Chicago here with what I believe is the first review on your site of Neil Jordan's latest, THE END OF THE AFFAIR.
Director Neil Jordan has always been a hit-and-miss kind of guy to me. For every bit of brilliance he produces (CRYING GAME, MONA LISA, or BUTCHER BOY), we get IN DREAMS, WE'RE NO ANGELS, or HIGH SPIRITS. And while there's some debate as to the merits of some of his higher-profile projects (INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, MICHAEL COLLINS), I tend to think that most of what he does is worth watching if not always worth liking.
His latest film is the remake of the Van Johnson/Deborah Kerr 1955 tearjerker THE END OF THE AFFAIR, this time starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore. Jordan adapted the original Graham Greene novel himself.The story is set during and just after WWII and begins with Fiennes typing a diary/novel that begins "This is a diary of hate." But who or what does he hate? The women with whom he'd had a passionate two-year affair and then broke it off with no explanation? Or her husband who was kind but dispassionate, who saw her as "a shadow that he walks around"? Or is it some unseen force that he refuses to acknowledge?
The story structure of AFFAIR is complicated to say the least. Nearly every scene is a flashback to just before the affair begins or to during the passionate fling or to just after when Fiennes is seething in anger and confusion. He spots Moore's distraught husband (played, not surprisingly, by Jordan staple Stephen Rea, in a wonderfully refining and subtle performance) during a rainstorm two years after the affair has ended. He escorts the unknowing Rea back to his home, where Rea confesses that he thinks his wife is seeing another man. It turns out Fiennes is even more jealous than the husband, and he volunteers to hire a private detective (played by the excellent Ian Hart) to follow her. The film's schizophrenic jumping from one time line to another is at times a bit confusing, but I can't think of a better way he could have kept the mystery of the end of the relationship intact. Many scenes and moments in the film are shown two or three times, but each time we view the scene, we know more about the characters and their motivations, thus the scene takes on new meaning. This is not done in a RASHOMON style (different versions of the same story); we literally see the same scene played out more than once, perhaps from different camera angles. But each time, we think different things about the people involved. It's hard to describe without seeing it.
The way that Fiennes and Moore portray their characters and their passion is a bit dry, and the sex scenes (and their are quite a few) are raw and sometimes cold despite the swelling music. (For those who care, Moore's breasts and Fiennes' ass get significant screen time here.) There's one great scene where they make love during a bombing raid. Some people may even claim that Moore and Fiennes don't have the necessary chemistry to pull this story off, but we realize once the more significant emotions enter the film near the end why the apparent coldness of the leads is necessary. Another potential problem for some may be Fiennes angst-ridden Maurice Bendrix. It may be difficult to watch a guy who says, "I measure my love by my jealousy"? And it's true! But few play the pained, rich, British guy roles better than Fiennes (Jeremy Irons probably does it best).
The reason for the "end of the affair" is not the ultimate climax of the film; it is just one of the many mysteries here in a movie that gets better as it goes along. It challenges faith in love, promises, and most importantly God. One lesson learned in THE END OF THE AFFAIR is that if you fuck with God, He's gonna fuck back with much vengeance and irony. There's a kick-in-the-gut ending that made me forgive some of the flaws in the storytelling. As he usually, does Jordan has made something that explores the shadowy corners of love and obsession, but done so in an entirely watchable manner. It may take you a while to be sold, but you'll be thinking about the implications and messages delivered here for many days to come.
Capone
