Dir. Roger Michell, 2004, UK , 101 mins
Cast:
Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans, Samantha Morton
Joe (Craig) has planned his picnic with Claire (Morton) to precision - the perfect little spot in rolling, open fields, the wineglasses, the bottle of champagne. It's a beautiful sunny afternoon in the English countryside, with just a slight breeze in the air. But all is forgotten in an instant as a group of strangers come crashing uninvited into the couple's lives. The freak accident which follows leaves Joe filled with self-doubt, and a chance meeting (or was it?) in a field with a strange young man named Jed Parry (Ifans) marks the beginnging of a dangerous obsession.
Roger Michell's adaptation of Ian McEwan's story of love and obsession opens, like the book, with great flair. The terrible incident in the field has a fantastic, and at the same time, a horribly real quality that is complemented by the disjointed speech and, at times, bizarre actions of the lead characters. Haris Zambarloukos' bold, imaginatively angular, photography does full justice to the cinematic eye of McEwan.
Yet, like the novel, Michell's film falls far short of the expectations aroused by its opening scenes. The high colour and drama of the day in the field gives way to the rainy blue tones of London streets and miserable interior shots of the couple's flat, Joe's classroom, Jed's drab apartment, and Claire's artist's studio. Occasional nights with friends Robin (Bill Nighy) and Rachel (Susan Lynch) offer some light and humour, "warming the piece" as screenwriter Joe Penhall intended.
That Michell and Penhall make Claire a sculptor, rather than a Keats scholar, yields little but cliché. We learn that she cannot sculpt Joe because they are lovers - they are too close, only for Joe, who is increasingly obsessed by Jed's unwanted attentions, to stumble on his likeness, hinting, very loudly, that a distance has grown between them. This lack of subtlety is also apparent in Ifans' character, the fragile but threatening loaner Jed Parry. Producer Kevin Loader talks of the "stalker story" aspect of Enduring Love, and the characterisation of Parry often falls into the genre's most obvious traps - Jed's dingy lair complete with a shrine to the object of his twisted affection, the jolting humour in the vein of Silence of the Lambs , and the film's final, daft and predictable, twist. Having said this, Ifans brings a certain frailty, as well as an inane energy to the role, which never fails to engage.
Craig also gives a quality performance, serving as the film's tense centre, his skilfully wrought internal struggles to some extent compensating for a remarkable lack of plot. But ultimately his genuine and emotional performance struggles to contend with the film's heavy-handed symbolism, and the thudding and out of place score of Jeremy Sams, which distracts and annoys throughout.
Lizzy Griffin
DVD Extras:
Directors Commentary
'Burst' Short Film
Balloon Featurette
Deleted Scenes
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