The End of the Affair – 1999 | 101 mins | Romance, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Anyone who has read Graham Greene’s semi-autobiographical 1951 novel The End of the Affair might question the feasibility of its translation to film. While his actual books tended to feature a good deal of internal angst ridden rumination, Graham Greene was always aware that the cinematic medium requires a much snappier pace, as his screenplay for the recently re-released The Third Man (1949) amply demonstrates. Neil Jordan is the right man for the job. His sparse but weighty screenplay condenses the pathos of its source material while imbuing the story with a sense of obsessive suspense.

Based on Greene’s menage a trois between man, woman and God, the story is told in a series of sometimes bewilderingly intricate flashbacks. Encasing the characters in a drizzly, Blitz-shaken London, the film stars Ralph Fiennes as novelist Maurice Bendrix who, after discovering bureaucrat pal Henry Miles (Stephen Rea) in a distressed state, learns of his friend’s fears that Mrs. Miles (Julianne Moore) is playing away from home. Having spent most of World War II exchanging a good deal more than ration coupons with the lady in question, this doesn’t exactly come as big news to Bendrix. Nevertheless, consumed by jealousy, the writer employs a firm of private detectives to discover the truth about his ex-mistress’ new lover, thus setting off a train of events that will end in remorse, tragedy and a good deal of anti-religious railing.

Indeed, although the film is theoretically a love triangle, the entire structure has a more square-ish feel to it with God himself occupying the fourth corner. The result is a scenario, which while intriguing on the page rather bogs things down on the screen. Not that the result is by any means a disaster. Both Moore and Rea are excellent, as is Sandy Powell’s costume design, while fans of Fiennes should have little to complain about. Best of all though is Ian Hart’s turn as the world’s most morally inclined private detective – yet more proof that someone should give this man a proper leading role again before he gets forever pigeonholed as a cameo king.

Review© Clark Collis