The movie is like a modern Casablanca with great performances, great cinematography, great original score...
One of the most romantic movies ever made.
So why?
For me it was dull, depressive, bleak. That's why I don't rate it.
However, I can appreciate the cinematography on display.
The music score really does set the tone of the film, which for me is in a word. dull.
[deleted]
I felt the movie missed the point of the book - from reading the book, I never saw the romance between Bendrix and Sarah,, but instead two people who were needy for some sort of attention and got it from each other sexually.
For the film, however, they try to make it into a love connection, in particular by adding the scene at the carnival/fair which I thought completely changed the entire relationship.
Beyond that, I felt one of the things that was really lost between the book and film was a lot of the musings on religion.
I suppose I would have liked it a lot more if I had never read the book.
I never read the book - but I agree tha tthis film is under-rated. It was so beautiful and so sad all at the same time.
shareyou don't have to read the books that films are adapted from to appreciate the films for their own worth. this is a fine, very subtle film - which is one of the reasons i believe it is "underrated." there's no obscene language, chase scenes or car crashes, the love/sex scenes are neither graphic and pedestrian, nor do they resemble images from some harlequin romance novel. in short, it's an intelligent, adult film directed by a real artist, and those have a tendency to be overlooked in our blockbuster-obsessed movie culture.
i like the comparison the o.p. made between this film and "casablanca." i agree wholeheartedly that it's a kind of "casablanca" for our times. and, i don't think you can be definitive or detailed about that comparison...it's really just the general mood and scenarios that make a comparison worthwhile. i also think the film is as good as "casablanca."
example: the music in "the end of the affair" is as moving as any in "casablanca." and, i would recommend it to any film fan who likes "casablanca."
gregory 082608
I must say I did not find this movie a great love story.
I hadn't read the book so I had no expectations or knowledge of the story, and though I found some of the spiritual themes and ideas in the movie interesting, even moving, the central relationship is so poorly developed that it never achieves sufficient authenticity or emotional depth to engage the heart.
These people are screwing each other 5 minutes after they meet, and we're supposed to connect with this as a world class, life-changing love? We're supposed to believe that this is a woman of such great goodness - near sanctity - yet it takes scarcely one encounter for her to be telling a virtual stranger she loves him and bedding him on her couch with her husband on the way home? It's absurd. We don't know them, they don't know each other, how can any of it achieve any emotional truth, much less resonance with the viewer? It’s a serious flaw for a movie that purports to explore such intense matters of the heart.
None of this is helped by the sometimes stilted, overwrought dialogue, multiple implausible situations - even the music and tone of the movie are excessively mannered, stylized. Do we need to be hit over the head with everything, including the score? From the first obvious cough to the 50th we know she is terminal. Do private detectives, who must of necessity fly below the radar, really travel with 10 year olds with big noticeable birthmarks? If you find an old friend you haven't seen in 2 years in your home don't you make at least some superficial effort at a civil greeting, is any husband so blind as not to notice something that overtly odd? I'd rather have seen Fiennes jealousy than have him keep telling me about it; rather witness the lovers' passion for each other than hear them discuss themselves. For a movie that is supposed to be about passion the whole thing is curiously dry.
One contributing factor in all this is Julianne Moore's acting; it was a mannered, rather plastic performance, she was "playing" a character rather than being one. It seemed as if she wasn't clear about who her character was. She is supposed to be a woman 2 men - not counting the little boy and the priest - are mad about to the point of sharing. Looking good in hats is not enough.
I couldn't help but compare this relationship with the brilliantly developed one in The English Patient; there we are drawn into a very intense, very adult romantic relationship, a very real struggle with guilt and ambivalence among adulterous lovers, jealousy shown and not simply discussed, and a superb female lead whose character is clearly defined and utterly authentic from her first moment on screen.
This was better than average, with some interesting spiritual themes, but I couldn't call it great.
Probably people were just expecting a traditional romantic drama. Maybe they were a little turned off by the philosophical/theological stuff going on underneath the surface or maybe they just didn't get it.
"These people are screwing each other 5 minutes after they meet, and we're supposed to connect with this as a world class, life-changing love? We're supposed to believe that this is a woman of such great goodness - near sanctity - yet it takes scarcely one encounter for her to be telling a virtual stranger she loves him and bedding him on her couch with her husband on the way home? It's absurd."
That would be a fair enough point in a traditional romantic drama. But it's important to remember that in the context of the movie Sarah supposedly undergoes a literally miraculous conversion experience. When Bendrix is miraculous saved from death based on her prayer, she becomes a completely different person. Now, as an atheist, I don't believe people undergo conversion experiences where they miraculously become a completely different person. But having Sarah go from adulterer to saint is consistent with the internal theology of the movie/novel.
Also, there was a line in the movie/novel where Bendrix and Sarah are having sex and Bendrix says something like "Do you think he heard us?" and Sarah says, "He wouldn't even know what it sounds like." So it's clear that Sarah had been married to her husband for some time with no sex. So in that context, her pouncing on Bendrix so quickly is more understandable.
Agreed! This is an absolutely intelligent, sensitive, mature drama that pulls at your emotions without getting bogged down in sentimentality. I loved it all the more for the issues it raised: conscience, honor, devotion. And Julianne Moore has never looked more ravishing!.I can watch this film over and over again.
share[deleted]
Just had the chance to Wtach this a few months ago and wow I can't say enough how much I loved it.
It is a really underrated movie, I love war Romances and this is one of the best. Big part of it was the chemistry between Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes almost as great as the one he had with Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient.
On a shallow note both actors looked great and their love scenes were very sexy and nice to look at hehe.