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The End of the Affair (1955)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
4/25
4/25:
Have I got some losers when it comes to lines:
"Your house was just one of a row of houses, a number I never even saw. And now when you're away, the whole
street feels empty."
"All those soapbox orators in the park. I walked by that way, and they were all furious about something.
Capitalism, military service, foreign aid. There was even one man who was angry about God."
"You see, one cannot be jealous without being in love. To be in love is to desire, and to desire is to want to
possess. And to want to possess is to want to protect. And to want to protect is to be suspicious of others.
And to be suspicious of others is to be jealous. You see, it all ties back to love, man's noblest frailty.
Besides, without this noble emotion, we would be out of business in a week."
My head falls down...what are you doing to me, Mrs. Lenore Coffee??? This is supposed to be a movie, not a
book. Sure, The End of the Affair invokes a sensible philosophical argument midway, but the screenplay is
packed with so many words, dulling any chance of Maurice and Sarah to make their love believable. I thought
the reason why she left him was that he smoked too much.
To take a turn for the worse, a silly plot device emerges when Maurice is finally gifted Sarah's diary, revealing
in full details of what caused the break in their affair. Like it would happen in real life. I wasn't
rooting for Sarah because she's, in a nutshell, a no-good cheating bitch while her poor, decent but eternally
stupid, spineless, and weak husband was forced to suffer. The ending is an easy way out for Sarah, so any
outcome in regard to her affair can cease permanently.
Deborah Kerr comes away unscathed by doing everything as possible to give a graceful performance.
I'm giving Van Johnson the benefit of the doubt although author Graham Greene called him a "disaster." He
was simply saddled with a boring, talkative character, and I couldn't stand him. Imagine trying to read his
novels. Peter Cushing and John Mills are fine with the latter stealing the show for a bit while.
All in all, The End of the Affair is a guaranteed snoozefest.