Alfie DVD > Reviews > All good flings come to an End

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Perfect film to chill out to
Disadvantages:	None, it ended so fast

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Alfie “You can’t always have it your way and women do have feelings you know”

Yes that’s the whole theme of the film. In this remake of the 1966’s classic, Jude Law plays the part of typical womaniser “Alfie”. Sometimes he even wears the colours to go with it. He’ll dream about them day and night, not caring one bit about who gets hurt in the process. When he gets bored of one woman he’ll move onto the next and so on.

It begins with Alfie, the cab driver, being attracted to Dorie(Jane Krakowski) as he drives her home one night. He has one intimate night with her in his cab that’s enough to send his current girlfriend, Julie (Marisa Tomei) reeling. She’s got fed up of Alfie coming in and out of her son’s life that she throws him onto the streets.

Alfie becomes depressed so much that he turns up at his best mate Marlon’s girlfriend’s Lonette (Nia Long) pub. They have a flirting thing going on that eventually gets out of hand, leading to Lonette becoming pregnant with Alfie’s child. She doesn’t want Marlon, or anyone else to find out about their affair, so tricks Alfie into believing that she’s having an abortion. She also asks him to vow that he won’t tell anyone about it. Alfie is very upset about the whole thing and is in a dilemma about the whole situation. He soon comes around and gets back to his usual mischievous tricks.

After months of fooling around, Alfie experiences something quite close to death. The docter discovers a lump in his penis and this requires urgent treatment. He tries hard not to let this worry him or prevent him from enjoying the intimate pleasures of life. Whilst he waits in agony for his test results, he bumps into an old man and they become close friends. This guy sure knows how to boast up Alfie’s confidence as scare is over as Alfie’s test results come out negative.

Christmas is on it’s way and it wouldn’t be the same without a perfect girlfriend, so time to work that charm one last time. He soon falls both on-screen and off for blonde attractive lass Nikki played by Sienna Miller. They both agree to spend those cold cosy nights of Christmas together that will see them into the New Year. However New Year doesn’t come easy for the pair as Nikki’s addiction for drugs worsens and this causes a lot of agro between the pair. On occasions, Nikki becomes extremely depressed because of it. That’s when Alfie’s interests turn from Nikki to elderly lady Liz (Susan Sarandon) and eventually he dumps Nikki.

Whilst things are all going great for Liz and Alfie, he decides to pay a visit to Lonette and to his horror, he discovers that she didn’t have the abortion and gave birth to a healthy boy. Lonette told Alfie she so hoped that her baby boy was Marlon’s and not Alfie’s. Despite everything, she is still seeing Marlon and makes it quite clear that she doesn’t want Alfie to have anything more to do with her or her baby.

Reluctantly, Alfie accepts this and goes back to Liz whom he finds with another younger man. Disgusted by this he makes his way home only to find on his journey that ex-lover Julie has a new man in her life. Still saddened he mops in his self-pity and bumps into Dorie who too is happily settled. In a way it serves him right because he went behind all these women and now the film ends with him having nothing.

It’s very hard not to get emotionally involved in the film. Even those who rarely show their emotions whilst watching films will find it extremely hard to fight back the tears for this one. I loved this movie from start to finish. I can watch it a million times over without getting bored. Jude Law’s role in this film is very different to his other roles and outweighs his performance in Sky Captain by far. I would strongly recommend seeing this film to anyone (apart from children of course who might find the sexual interactions abit too much for their liking).

I’ll admit I haven’t seen the original to compare, but this film kept me hooked the whole way through. Towards the end of the film, you could almost feel yourself in Alfie’s shoes and despite all what’s happened I do feel sorry for him. I know they say people should learn from their own mistakes and he was too stubborn to do anything about controlling his feelings, yet I’d still forgive him for what he’s done. Alfie will always have a soft spot in my heart.

On a lighter a note, if any of you lucky enough to watch the film itself, you’ll soon discover the chemistry between Jude Law and Sienna Miller and how good they are as a couple. It’s no surpise that they’ve got together in real life and I give my hat off too them.

Certificate:
15

Running time:
100 mins

Main Cast:
Jude Law (Alfie)
Sienna Miller (Nikki)
Omar Epps (Marlon)
Nia Long (Lonette)
Marisa Tomei (Julie)
Susan Sarandon (Liz)
Jane Krakowski (Dorie)

Caution:
There’s a great deal of sexual interaction, strong language and drug usage during the film. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

If you enjoyed this film as much as I have it may be worth checking out the original and comparing this one to it. I know re-makes often suck but this one is bound to be a blockbuster success, especially with Jude Law’s handsome looks and charm beautifully portrayed throughout the film. Ok I’ll stop there…………