Enduring Love

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source: Enduring Love

From the main character's fatuous rantings about love and meaning, to the aggressively stupid, disjoined story, to the gratuitous shocks, (thanks so much for the intestines) to the silly ending, this is one of the worst movies ever made. Right down there with Funny Lady. I know what you're saying: "He doesn't get it. It's a sophisticated story about one intellectual's journey toward understanding life". Yechh! OK then! Let's work together to come up with a way that I never have to see any of your movies again. Perhaps you could say in the next trailer: "From the makers of the incredibly stupid "Enduring Love"! I want my money back!

Notwithstanding its popularity, just how bad a match for "Notting Hill" was Roger Michell? "Changing Lanes" was about as substantial as a studio thriller can be; somebody ought to give this guy at a good, commercial chiller that isn't masquerading as anything else. He'd knock it out of the park. The opening sequence and the climax of "Enduring Love" are startlingly effective, and held me in rapt attention as no two scenes in any film the past year. If "Enduring Love" finally proves less than the sum of its parts, well at least there was some math involved. No doubt Ian McEwan's novel provides the film with what depth it has; the ideas aren't original (Daniel Craig's professor is the kind of talking-head that should exasperate anyone) but their intersections are provocative. How much stress can we take, just how tenuous are our ties? At its core it is no more than a stalker movie with art-house pretensions, but at least the trials of the main character are less a result of his own transgressions (unlike the the all-time champion in the genre, "Fatal Attraction," which can be boiled down to, Don't commit adultery!). "Enduring Love" demonstrates just how fragile our relationships can be, and how useless rationality is in the face of obsession, or even genuine affection. That its outcome seems inevitable only increases the tension. In movies today, Rhys Ifans practically has a patent on a certain brand of loser. This one's got an actual (albeit rare) disorder to blame, not that the movie stops (or bothers) to explain that for us— or to differentiate, as it does for marriage and infatuation, between fanaticism and faith: it's the part Mr. Ifans was born-again to play! Most unfortunate are the Psycho-esquire score and the coda, which is a head-scratcher: is there going to be a sequel? I don't think so. The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" will never sound the same. Of course, that only goes to show that you can ruin any pop song by putting it in the mouth of a movie psycho.

I remember reading Ian McEwan's book. I remember it took me a long time to do it, despite the fact I'm usually a fast reader. And I remember thinking, excellent plot, but I really don't like the author's writing. So I was very, very pleased to see this great story turned into a film, even better when this is a film which is carefully directed, produced and edited. It is not the most extraordinary thing in cinema, nevertheless it is a very good movie, dealing with the topic of madness in one of its most singular forms, the erotic delirium. The problem faced by Daniel Craig's character is a difficult one: is this man insane or am I going crazy? Who is mad and who is not?

Nothing in this film made any sense artistically or editorially and I would be staggered if the novelist whose book was so bowderlised would have approved this silly mess. I laughed out aloud at its silly pretensions, ponderous British teleplay set ups and its unimaginative, plodding inconsistent direction:eg: one minute hand-held camera, the next static over thought about set-ups. The performances were arch - not the actors' fault, and the heavy handed symbolism was embarrassing. British cinema can hardly stoop lower than this and I wonder about the critics (not all thankfully) who serve it in Britain who thought this tosh worthwhile. Must have had a very popular (and clever) publicist. I saw it with three in the audience at a prime site and at a prime hour. They were as bemused by its awfulness too!