Alfie

Not-so-bad boy: Updated Alfie lacks a certain thrust

By Anthony Del Valle

During Christmas season 1966, major newspapers carried a movie ad that said, "Oh! Alfie!" The tag was a tease spoken by one of the many birds that Michael Caine's cockney working-class character was picking off in and above the streets of South London. I found myself saying the same thing when I saw the current remake. But it was said in sadness rather than sexual excitement. Watching the new version is like seeing an old friend after too many decades and realizing he's transformed himself into an ogre.

The original's screenplay by Bill Naughton (based on his unsuccessful 1964 Broadway play) was about a philandering chauffeur who finds life can be lonely when it's lived only between the bedsheets. It was given dimension by Caine's blend of romanticism and cynicism. You understood why women were attracted to him, and why he didn't really believe in them. There was something fatalistic about his irresistible come-ons; as if he alone knew some horrible reality that could be postponed only with sensual pleasure. He talked openly to the camera, with a leering attitude.

Jude Law is one terrific actor, but he's at heart an earnest pretty boy. His perfectly constructed face and boyish blue eyes suggest a lot of things, but cynicism is not one of them. Caine seemed to be having a terrific time, until loneliness slowly crept up on him. Law shows us his guilt too early, just like an earnest pretty boy would. He has just a couple of encounters before he and writers Charles Shyer and Elaine Pope get heavy-handed with the shallowness of it all.

It's as if director Shyer didn't trust that we would get the film's moral unless they had Law state it a dozen times. Or maybe they were worried that if they showed Law having too much fun, they'd get an NC-17 rating. (It's amazing how much more sexually honest the films of the mid-'60s to mid-'70s were.)

The movie doesn't seem to understand its own time period and setting. We're told the place is present-day Manhattan (Law remains a South Londoner), but many of the girls our anti-hero picks up look like rich 1960s hippie celebrities (there are several young-Julie Christie look-alikes.) The picture doesn't feel American--it's more 1965's Darling and 1966's Morgan! and Blow-Up. In addition, too many of the women Alfie becomes involved with have "danger" written all over them. Alfie's problem may simply be that he's messing with the wrong chicks.

The remake lacks a climactic scene that shakes Alfie into considering a change. In the original, it was an illegal abortion (remember them?) that ended with Alfie inadvertently coming in contact with the dead fetus. You could understand why a man who wanted nothing more than a good time would be repelled by what his good time has brought about. But with this version, Alfie just gets upset that his booty calls are tiring of him. The film lacks moral conviction.

Law, though, is great company when onscreen. He's inventive and emotionally thorough. He never tries to get by on his looks (although is anybody else tired of his playing heartthrobs?).

The supporting cast includes Marisa Tomei as a needy single parent, and Susan Sarandon as a middle-aged kept woman who likes young guys on the side. Sarandon's face is one of the few in Hollywood with wrinkles. She wears her age with distinction because she's sexy without being youthful.

Alfie will likely appeal to women who want their men to commit. The movie is a sermon about the evils of bachelorhood, and it's probably best that men keep their girlfriends from seeing it. Things could get ugly.