Prepared as I was to adore the remake of the 1955 version (in which the lover is, for some unfathomable reason, an American reporter rather than an English government functionary), I was crushingly disappointed with the remake. Grahame Greene’s whole premise was distorted by having the Julianne Moore character meet secretly with a priest to help her resist the temptation to return to her lover.
Greene’s story is of a woman, baptized but not a practicing Roman Catholic, who seeks counsel from an atheist in order to convince herself that her vow (to end her affair if her lover’s life is spared) is of no worth. Her eventual loss of the will to live is directly related to her inability to divest herself of her conviction that she must never again see the man she loves. The implication is that her baptism “took.” Despite her not consciously adhering to Christian tenets and her wishing to justify ignoring her vow, she is somehow compelled against her will to keep it.
Disrespecting the author’s intent insults the intelligence of the audience. Did the producers see viewers as incapable of comprehending how convoluted such rationalization can become? Or did they themselves fail to understand what it is to have a deep conflict of conscience? The irony of the story is utterly lost in translation! Tsk. Tsk.
O Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson, come back. All is forgiven.
Cast
- Ralph Fiennes as Maurice Bendrix
- Stephen Rea as Henry Miles
- Julianne Moore as Sarah Miles
- Heather-Jay Jones as Henry’s Maid
- James Bolam as Mr. Savage
- Ian Hart as Mr. Parkis
- Sam Bould as Lance Parkis
- Cyril Shaps as Waiter
- Penny Morrell as Bendrix’s Landlady
- Simon Fisher Turner as Doctor Gilbert
- Jason Isaacs as Father Richard Smythe
- Deborah Findlay as Miss Smythe