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The End of the Affair (1999)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
5/25
5/25:
It's a good thing that I watched The End of the Affair first
before proceeding to the remake, so I would know what to look for.
For starters, the scenes have been completely rearranged, and I was surprised to land in the middle of the
second half with the final thirty minutes being made up. The biggest issue with the original is
the awful writing by Lenore Coffee. Director Neil Jordan tried to remedy it by delivering a better script,
but it didn't work this time. For WWII Britain, the lines sound too...modern. Why is it that Stephen Rea
appears in almost every Neil Jordan's picture?
There's supposed to be passion between Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore, but what passion? It's only lust and
fucking, not love. Deborah Kerr gave a graceful performance while Julianne Moore is bland, thinking that wearing
nice clothes would be more than enough. The former sold the religious theme very well as the reason for the breakup
while the latter was like, "Yeah, um...you know, that's why. 'Kay, bye." Hence, Julianne Moore received the
second Oscar nomination of her career only because she took off her clothes just like
Boogie Nights.
As for Van Johnson, I can't for the life of me beat him up because he was done disservice by being saddled with
a boring, talkative character; had Van Johnson been given a proper script, I'm positive he would've matched
Deborah Kerr scene for scene. That being said, Ralph Fiennes, as a good of an actor he is, is miscast; worse,
it feels like The English Patient all over again for him with the
same exact type of story. If there's anything positive to say, the cinematography is nice, scoring an
Oscar nomination for Roger Pratt.
All in all, if you have to choose, go with the 1955 version of The End of the Affair with Deborah Kerr and
Van Johnson despite the problems unless you are mad enough to want to see Ralph Fiennes' naked buttocks.