The flaw at the heart of this movie (and the old black-and-white version) is that you can't understand why a nice Catholic girl like Rose would fall for a thug like Pinkie (the fact that he's a - naughty -Catholic boy fails to give him a redeeming quality: well, maybe it does in God's eyes but not in mine!). This flaw is also at the heart of Greene's book. Andrea Riseborough plays Rose well enough - sad, lonely, yearning to be loved - but nice-looking as Sam Riley is, Pinkie IS no more than a charmless thug. Rowan Joffe has chosen to make Pinkie a grown-up gangster rather than the teenage sociopath that Richard Attenborough played, and Riley gives him a touch of Peter Rachman, a touch of Reggie Kray, which are so right for the period. But he makes it pitifully clear that he despises Rose, and you keep asking yourself: why does Rose love him? The recording-booth scene on the pier is the key moment in the story, heartbreakingly well played, but it nails the question without providing an answer.
Helen Mirren and John Hurt are perfectly on the button for the 1960s, but I thought the Mods in the battle scene by the Pier weren't Mod enough - too many 1990s anoraks, not enough smart jackets. Sussex born and bred, I was amused by the combining of bits of Brighton and (bigger) bits of sedate old Eastbourne (there's even a bit of Hastings Old Town, unacknowledged in the end credits!). The two Beachy Head scenes were thrilling and beautifully lit. I liked the 'epilogue'.
In some ways this is a worthy adaptation of the book's theme and the translation to a later era gives it more 'resonanance' for a modern audience. The Catholic guilt trip that is a central feature in 'Greeneland' may have less resonance today, and this film doesn't handle it as persuasively as Neil Jordan did in THE END OF THE AFFAIR (1999), but Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes are in a different league from Andrea Riseborough and Sam Riley (though they both show huge promise).
Helen Mirren and John Hurt are perfectly on the button for the 1960s, but I thought the Mods in the battle scene by the Pier weren't Mod enough - too many 1990s anoraks, not enough smart jackets. Sussex born and bred, I was amused by the combining of bits of Brighton and (bigger) bits of sedate old Eastbourne (there's even a bit of Hastings Old Town, unacknowledged in the end credits!). The two Beachy Head scenes were thrilling and beautifully lit. I liked the 'epilogue'.
In some ways this is a worthy adaptation of the book's theme and the translation to a later era gives it more 'resonanance' for a modern audience. The Catholic guilt trip that is a central feature in 'Greeneland' may have less resonance today, and this film doesn't handle it as persuasively as Neil Jordan did in THE END OF THE AFFAIR (1999), but Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes are in a different league from Andrea Riseborough and Sam Riley (though they both show huge promise).