Neil Jordan has a diverse manner in his direction of motion pictures, and as evident in The End of The Affair, it is a rather clumsy one. Sure enough this a high quality motion picture, particluarly in the acting of the three leads, as well as most of what there is of a supporting cast. The problem is the depth of the movie and story with which we are presented. Graham Greenes novel is a classic and has epical qualities as did The vampire Chronicles (Interview), but in Jordan's transition from paper to screen, certain things are lost. The movie comes across less of an event and more of a story, he seems to have spent a lot of time condensing the written material into pastiches of the novels content. He rather chops away at certain parts. I am not saying that if he had made a longer movie out of it then it would solve things but as evident in most of Anthony Minghella's and Frank Darabont's work, modern epics do need to have the sweeping quality of the Lawrence of Arabia and other David Lean pictures.
Perhaps he is uncomfortable with padding what he would feel to be a 'nice' love story. With added sub-plotting the movie would have naturally looked more comfortable with being lengthy. The only possible areas for this happening would have been in the character of Parkiss. There is certainly more to be explored there. Mainly thanks to the out-standing performance of Ian Hart, who has a very underrated role in british cinema. His scenes are all with Fiennes and maybe this would put him in the market for more mainstream roles. Fiennes himself is excellent and the love scenes with Moore have a definite chemistry. Stephen rea is always capable of giving a character an emotional twist and he does so again with a lumbered drool. Jordan's direction is by no means bad and he proves once again that he can cross genres with ease. Overall a very good movie which gives a difficult message about love which the majority may not understand.
Perhaps he is uncomfortable with padding what he would feel to be a 'nice' love story. With added sub-plotting the movie would have naturally looked more comfortable with being lengthy. The only possible areas for this happening would have been in the character of Parkiss. There is certainly more to be explored there. Mainly thanks to the out-standing performance of Ian Hart, who has a very underrated role in british cinema. His scenes are all with Fiennes and maybe this would put him in the market for more mainstream roles. Fiennes himself is excellent and the love scenes with Moore have a definite chemistry. Stephen rea is always capable of giving a character an emotional twist and he does so again with a lumbered drool. Jordan's direction is by no means bad and he proves once again that he can cross genres with ease. Overall a very good movie which gives a difficult message about love which the majority may not understand.