Movie · 1999 · Romance, Drama · 1h 42m · R · English
Curator score: 4.3/10 (38.1K ratings)
The end was just the beginning.
Overview
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.3/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.42/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 66%
Metacritic: 65
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Neil Jordan
Production
Columbia Pictures
Cast
Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea, James Bolam, Ian Hart, Jason Isaacs, Deborah Findlay, Sam Bould, Cyril Shaps, Simon Turner, Heather-Jay Jones, Nicholas Hewetson, Jack McKenzie, Penny Morrell, Simon Fisher-Turner, Claire Ashton, Jeremy Caleb Johnson, Anthony Maddalena, Nic Main
Curator Review
Verdict
A moody, adult melodrama about obsession, faith, and the emotional wreckage of an affair, elevated by strong performances and lush period atmosphere. It can feel restrained and mournful rather than sweeping, but the central relationship has real heat and spiritual tension.
Best for
Viewers who like romantic dramas with moral and religious undertones
Fans of intense, performance-driven period pieces
People drawn to melancholy, rain-soaked London atmosphere
Audiences interested in love stories shaped by guilt, jealousy, and memory
Skip if
You want a fast-moving plot or lots of external action
You dislike emotionally withholding, introspective romance
You prefer straightforward love stories without theological or moral complexity
You are not in the mood for a bleak, sorrowful tone
Overview
Neil Jordan turns Graham Greene’s novel into a hushed, rain-drenched study of desire, faith, and self-destruction. The film is less interested in conventional romance than in the way obsession mutates into jealousy, grief, and spiritual crisis.
Worth noting
Ralph Fiennes gives Maurice a raw, corrosive intensity, while Julianne Moore brings warmth, mystery, and a kind of wounded grace that keeps the film from becoming purely bitter. Their chemistry is the engine here, and the movie’s emotional power comes from how much it believes in the pain of wanting someone you cannot fully possess.
Bottom line
The period detail and cinematography are elegant without feeling decorative, and the film’s religious dimension gives it a distinctive ache. It is not a crowd-pleasing romance, but for viewers who like their love stories haunted, it lands with real force.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Laura Parker-Saladino (3★) · 341 likes
Ralph Fiennes has a great ass.
Eric Eidelstein (3★) · 232 likes
Catholicism ruins lives, Ralph Fiennes's ass saves them.
𝕄𝕒𝕥𝕥 (3★) · 180 likes
I do not condone cheating but if ur gonna do it, Ralph Fiennes is a good choice.
Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 (4★) · 143 likes
"Love doesn't end just because we don't see each other"
"Doesn't it?"
"People go on loving God don't they, all their lives, without seeing him?"
"That's not my kind of love"
"Maybe there's no other kind?"
Graham Greene wrote some utterly brilliant novels, but they've proved notoriously difficult to adapt into equally brilliant movies. Only Brighton Rock, The Third Man and this come close to the brilliance right there on the page. It's only right that this distinctly personal tale… more