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End of the Affair, The
Sony Pictures Entertainment


8.8

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for scenes of strong sexuality

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, and Stephen Rea

A novelist living in London during WWII (Fiennes) has a chance meeting with Henry Miles (Rea), husband of his ex-mistress Sarah (Moore), who abruptly broke off their affair two years before.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Neil Jordan Graham Greene (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Neil Jordan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 16, 2000 Video: May 16, 2000 Theatrical: December 3, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	109 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson

Rereading Greene's book, one is struck anew by the absolute perfection of the film's casting.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A gripping account of grown-up sensuality, obsession, loss and hope.

Variety Emanuel Levy

A faithful adaptation that captures the haunting spirit and religious nature of the 1951 novel.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Has everything a period romance should have, including a score by Michael Nyman and passionate performances by stars Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Without a hint of sanctimony, it is a love story as much about soul as heart.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Splendid acting helps Jordan achieve most of his goals, although some may find the romantic and religious elements an uneasy mixture.

Film.com Robert Horton

It's swell when a film really does capture a book in some exactitude.

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.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

When it comes to holiday films worth swooning over, here's the one to see.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

Moore and Fiennes both give impassioned, sexy performances.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

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.

Slate David Edelstein

A religious conspiracy disguised as a romance.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Rests on three excellent performances, of which the most difficult is Stephen Rea's.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An engaging but essentially routine tragic romance.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The immaculately crafted film that just sits there and refuses to come to life.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

If the movie were not so downbeat and its literary pedigree so distinguished, the resolution would be soap opera.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Rather prosy until its final third. Then it grabs you with unexpected force.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Many of the right elements -- the '40s look, the melodrama, the love that transcends reason.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

If you're looking to be romantically captivated, this movie just might do the job.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Its impression lingers in the mind, giving the film a longer half-life than it would otherwise deserve.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Read like a long, anguished prayer, but on screen it looks an awful lot like blasphemy.

USA Today Mike Clark

This is the kind of movie in which even the sex scenes are soulless.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

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.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Ultimately feels like a movie whose heart is in the right place, even though someone neglected to flip the 'On' switch.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It's hard to feel anything but disappointment and boredom by the time the picture grinds to a mystical ending.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Fails to capture the spiritual hallelujah of the novel.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

"I didn't write this." In heaven, Graham Greene is mumbling those same words over and over right now.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a 6:
The war is raging, the world's in turmoil, but these people are off on their little side trip. I bet that happens a lot. Nothing memorable, nothing objectionable.

Yoon Min C. gave it an 8:
A rapturous romance that overflows with doomed tragic passion. One may cynically denounce the movie as selling catholicism thru sex or vice versa, but it works. I was engaged with the emotions throughout, enticed by the cat-n-mouse game among the lovers, and deeply impressed by its revelation and climax, a kind of spiritual orgasm. I could have done less with watching Fiennes's bare buttocks or Julianne Moore's naked bod which is becoming a boring staple as were Greta Scacchi's boobs in the 80s. When guys get tired of watching certain females nude, it really means enough already. Baring one's boobs or crotch is NOT the same as baring one's soul(but then try telling that to Harvey Keitel of late). Directed with great finesse, a truly fine adaptation of literary classic.

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End of the Affair, The Sony Pictures Entertainment

End of the Affair, The
Sony Pictures Entertainment