| 94 |
Mr. Showbiz
Richard T. Jameson
Rereading Greene's book, one is struck anew by the absolute perfection of the film's casting.
|
| 91 |
Portland Oregonian
A gripping account of grown-up sensuality, obsession, loss and hope.
|
| 90 |
Variety
A faithful adaptation that captures the haunting spirit and religious nature of the 1951 novel.
|
| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
Has everything a period romance should have, including a score by Michael Nyman and passionate performances by stars Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore.
|
| 88 |
Miami Herald
Without a hint of sanctimony, it is a love story as much about soul as heart.
|
| 88 |
Christian Science Monitor
Splendid acting helps Jordan achieve most of his goals, although some may find the romantic and religious elements an uneasy mixture.
|
| 80 |
Film.com
It's swell when a film really does capture a book in some exactitude.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
Michael Sragow
I'd put The End of the Affair just beneath the top rung of Jordan movies or Greene-based films (it's no "The Fallen Idol" or "The Third Man"), with Moore the critical element that makes it necessary viewing.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
When it comes to holiday films worth swooning over, here's the one to see.
|
| 80 |
TNT RoughCut
Moore and Fiennes both give impassioned, sexy performances.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Examiner
The End of the Affair's masterfully heartbroken final scene is scarier in its nightmarishly wry suggestion of ill fate than anything that ever happened on Elm Street.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
Few recent movie romances have a more chilling and peculiar feel -- and a more sobering aftertaste -- than Neil Jordan's heart-rendingly cold adaptation of Affair.
|
| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
The affair itself, in its genteel way, does catch fire, but it's the end of the affair that needs to move us to rapture, and the movie, instead, just drifts away.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Watching this well-behaved adaptation of one of Greene's most personal novels, you can't help but wish that the novelist had been around to write his own script.
|
| 70 |
Slate
A religious conspiracy disguised as a romance.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
Rests on three excellent performances, of which the most difficult is Stephen Rea's.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
An engaging but essentially routine tragic romance.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
The immaculately crafted film that just sits there and refuses to come to life.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Sun-Times
If the movie were not so downbeat and its literary pedigree so distinguished, the resolution would be soap opera.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Rather prosy until its final third. Then it grabs you with unexpected force.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
Many of the right elements -- the '40s look, the melodrama, the love that transcends reason.
|
| 60 |
Village Voice
About halfway through I began to imagine it as it might have been directed by Douglas Sirk as a vehicle for Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
If you're looking to be romantically captivated, this movie just might do the job.
|
| 60 |
Newsweek
Staff (not credited)
A film of ideas; meaty ideas about Catholicism, faith, and the true nature of jealousy, love and hate, that are rarely contemplated in today's cinema.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Its impression lingers in the mind, giving the film a longer half-life than it would otherwise deserve.
|
| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
Read like a long, anguished prayer, but on screen it looks an awful lot like blasphemy.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
This is the kind of movie in which even the sex scenes are soulless.
|
| 50 |
Dallas Observer
Satisfying in its setup and execution, and the Catholic guilt streaked through its dank, rainy atmosphere serves it well. Nonetheless, the story's subtleties in this version are often outweighed by melodrama, sometimes verging on sap.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
Ultimately feels like a movie whose heart is in the right place, even though someone neglected to flip the 'On' switch.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
It's hard to feel anything but disappointment and boredom by the time the picture grinds to a mystical ending.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
Fails to capture the spiritual hallelujah of the novel.
|
| 25 |
Charlotte Observer
"I didn't write this." In heaven, Graham Greene is mumbling those same words over and over right now.
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