Women will watch for two hours full of the stylish Jude
Law. Men will watch because... well, mostly because a woman
will make them, but even they will be occasionally
entertained by the little nuggets of truth Mr. Law drops
about the single man's psyche. And both sexes will
certainly appreciate the pure eye candy in casting and
stylishness in design throughout the film.
Yet in Alfie, there is little that goes beyond the
surface. In the title role, Jude Law is the ultimate
playboy. A carefree limo driver, he lives life for one
reason and one reason only: women. In this one film alone,
he dabbles with a married woman, a single mother, a manic
depressive beauty, an older woman, and even his best
friend's girl. And do these relationships change him? Do
they reveal the cracks in his glossy exterior? The audience
would certainly like to believe so, but...
It's hard to feel sympathetic for a character who has so
little...character. Although there are little ploys used to
make Alfie seem more human, none of them really create the
kind of depth needed to make anyone really care about what
happens to him. He reads a new word every morning from his vocabulary calendar, he totes a red folder which supposedly contains his mysterious and elusive "business plan" (probably devised to give him an easy source of depth — a dream — and yet failing because of its random and vague nature which never fully materializes). These gimmicks amount to nothing more than just that- leaving Alfie to express his nature through narrative alone.
And boy does he, at length. Alfie talks directly to the audience at various points throughout the film. While this technique is sometimes helpful in understanding his state of mind, and is sometimes comic, it can also backfire. With a character as shallow as Alfie, some of this thoughts are bound to border on cheesy and cliche. My own personal favorite thought is "as my own aunt used to say, looks aren't everything. I used to think that was a load of bullocks, but maybe the old bat had something." This is the deep Alfie.
Yet maybe I'm being unreasonable in expecting change, a real growth of depth in such a surface character? Through those he leaves and those who leave him, he finally comes to wonder, what is it all about? No answer is forthcoming. The audience can see in him the emptiness and loneliness behind his smooth facade, and yet there is no satisfaction, no guarantee that by the end of the film Alfie finally sees this in himself.
There are a few little unexpected bonuses in this drawn-out film. Gedde Watanabe, best known as Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles, makes an appearance as Alfie's boss and offers a few laughs. Omar Epps delivers a small but heartbreaking performance as Alfie's best friend, and British bohemian icon Sienna Miller is outstanding as Alfie's temporary "damaged" girlfriend. Mick Jagger provides a thoroughly excellent soundtrack that fits well with the style of the movie.
I recommend this film to anyone who is willing to spend a few bucks merely to watch Jude Law be very suave and British. And really, there are much worse reasons than that to rent a movie.
