The passion they kept a secret and the secret that tore them apart.
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) has a chance meeting with Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), husband of his ex-mistress Sarah (Julianne Moore), who had abruptly ended their affair two years before. Subsequently, Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled: he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed. As the investigation progresses, we learn the reason for their abrupt separation: during a bombing raid Sarah struck a bargain with God to sacrifice their relationship in exchange for Bendrix's life.
When Bendrix reappears in her life, Sarah realises that her promise to God has became impossible for her to keep. She is placed in a spiritual dilemma as she struggles with her enduring love.
Special Agent Matti
Classic British cinema.
The end of the affair takes the feel of 40s Brit films and runs it through the eye of a cynical 00s director. Hats, overcoats, rainy nights and chilly days, England is under siege from Hitler and his buzz bombs. Love, lust, passion and death hang in the air. Men and women try to live their lives in this most intolerable of conditions.
Neil's script and direction mesh perfectly with Graham's story, creating a tale from which you can't escape. Ralph plays his quintessential ungentlemanly gentleman to a T, but this time brings a whole new dimension to the part: vulnerability. There is no way that Bendrix can take charge of his situation let alone himself so he falls into the affair like a leaf blown from a tree. Julianne is a tragic heroine, trapped in a world she didn't create and can't control, slave to her passion as much as to her society. Stephen is the bland, selfish, uncaring master whom she must obey. Together, the three circle each other with no idea of who they are or where they are going.
The torturous path they follow draws you in until you must follow them to the bitter, bitter, bittersweet end, if only to find your own way out of the maze they have created.
If you can tolerate a fog of love, lust, passion and death smothering you, blinding you, The end of the affair is a film that you must see. The timeless pain with which Maurice, Henry and Sarah delude themselves is worth seeing on its own, let alone the suffering they inflict along the way. See it.
MA 15+ (Medium level sex scene)
97 minutes (1:37 hours)
VHS retail: 7 May 2001
