Starring the babe magnet Jude Law as the cockney womaniser Alfie, this reinvention of the classic 1966 Michael Caine film transposes the character onto modern day New York and into a world of high-society and dominant woman, many of whom he meets working as a chauffer.
Law struts through Alfie’s life with all the guile and self-assuredness of a man who knows what he wants and how to get it. The excellent and often hilarious dialogue crackles with biting wit. The women in Alfie’s world pose innumerate problems for him and represent a subversive element in his otherwise tightly ordered life. This battle of the sexes, played out in the stylish bars and across the fast-paced social scene of New York, represents a rabbit-warren of dilemmas and moral implications that echo throughout social circles around the world.
Whether you agree that Alfie is a superb re-make that develops the themes from the original and explores the implications of a man living in a moral vacuum, this new version of the film has certainly opened up the original to a new audience.
Alfie is released on DVD on 21st February, 2005 (and watch this space to win a copy!)
