Film Review: The End of the Affair

Neil Jordan's latest production once again demonstrates his skill at adapting novels and is on par with his excellent treatment of 'The Butcher Boy'. This time he tackles noir British writer Graham Greene and his semi-autobiographical account of the affair he had with American Catherine Walston.

The film charts the tempestuous love triangle between Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes), a bohemian writer and Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), a mild-mannered civil servant devoted to his wife, Sarah (Julianne Moore). The unadventurous Henry hosts a party where his wife, trapped by their sterile marriage, is immediately attracted to the charismatic writer who reciprocates her feelings. They begin an illicit affair which takes place against the background of the 1940s wartime London. The production design by Anthony Pratt is exquisite and London itself has an imposing effect on the film. On one passionate afternoon spent together, Bendrix's flat is hit by a bomb, in which Sarah fears that her lover has perished. When he lives, she inexplicably breaks off the affair and vows never to see him again. Her spiritual promise acts as a curse which forbids her to continue the physicality of their affair.

In the accompanying production notes, Jordan says that he wanted "the whole thing to feel like an erotic ghost story". Bendrix is haunted by his desire for Sarah and his disloyalty to his friend. Sarah in turn is haunted by her unfulfilling marriage and her duplicitous affair. Her spiritual faith conflicts with the atheism of Bendrix and both have very different views on why their affair ends in the first instance.

Disappointingly, the British Censor has opted for an 18 cert (Seamus Smith gave it 15) based on shots of Ralph Fiennes energetic rear, so a lot of younger people will not get to see this adaptation. Jordan weaves the power of passion and the frailty of human existence into a superb film which tackles the universality of love, desire, deception and fate.

Sinead Gleeson