Ian McEwan is one of those writers where the reading pleasure lies as much in the language, in the music of the prose, as in what actually happens, so that previous screen
adaptations of his works have tended to seem vapid by comparison to the originals. Perhaps aware of that pitfall, director Roger Michell
has gone for an edgy cinematic approach in Enduring Love, making an action spectacle out of the famous runaway balloon beginning, and using jump cutting, fast flashback cutting
and wild camera moves to convey a deepening sense of psychological unease. He has also paired two of the most interesting actors to have
recently emerged - Daniel Craig, whom he directed in The Mother; and Rhys Ifans, whom he directed in Notting Hill - as Joe and Jed in the odd male-on-male stalking
encounter that the piece explores.
Joe is very much the archetypal Ian McEwan viewpoint character - the stand-in for the author. He is cerebral and
intellectualises his feelings away. In his work as a lecturer he suggests to his students that love is no more than an illusion, a function
of biological necessity. But when faced the reality of another's obsessional love for him, he has no strategy for dealing with it.
Craig captures Joe's essence perfectly - the steely pragmatist who comes unstuck; another version of which he played in the recent gangster thriller Layer Cake.
Since coming to our attention as the comic grungy Welshman in Notting Hill, Rhys Ifans has shown himself to be an actor of terrific subtlety and versatility.
His imitation of Peter Cook in the TV drama Not Only But Also was remarkable for its depth and accuracy. And he does an
effective job of bringing to life the rather sketchy and equivocal Jed of the novel, showing him as a sad, borderline case, pitiable but also harbouring real danger within the folds of
his pathology.
Joe meets Jed when they come together as rescuers of a boy who is left alone in a hot air balloon when it breaks loose and threatens to fly off.
A sudden gust of wind fulfils this threat, and the various rescuers fail to restrain the balloon as it ascends. One of their number
hangs on too long and falls to his death. Joe and Jed are the first to encounter the broken body, and to relieve the horror Jed suggests
they pray. Joe is reluctant but goes along with it, comforting Jed and touching his arm. Later,
after Jed has commenced a campaign of stalking Joe, it becomes clear he has interpreted these gestures as emblems of their emergent love, and insists that Joe own up to what is going
on between them.
The reflexive, self-fuelling nature of obsession is well shown - the obsessive's private fantasy being thrust onto the other as an external reality, and the other's
refusal to acknowledge it therefore being interpreted as denial, an obstacle to be overcome by persistence. It's a no-win situation for
Joe, and the interplay between the two actors rings very authentically, with just the right blend of awkwardness, embarrassment and sudden flare-ups of anger that you'd expect. 
Also the film goes further in resolving the nature of Jed's love for Joe, which is initially presented as spiritual rather than carnal, an extension of Jed's religiosity.
The Jed of the novel isn't an obviously gay character, and neither is the Jed of the film, at first. But by replacing the book's
ending with a more climatic and conclusive one, and by tying up the loose ends differently, a clearer focus is established and the piece's nature as a meditation on love is more neatly
wrapped.
By choosing to elaborate on a same sex stalking case, McEwan avoided the obvious well-trodden path of the male-on-female type, and also the bunny-boiler, Fatal
Attraction territory of female-on-male; but even when converted into a film with great acting and an effective mood, his purpose still retains a degree of impenetrability that
leaves us a little lost at the end. The real story, perhaps, is that of Joe and his partner Claire - a quiet performance from Samantha
Morton - whose relationship collapses under the strain of Joe's reaction to being stalked. It's puzzling how Claire fails to empathize with
Joe, fails to recognize his problem and close ranks with him against Jed's onslaught. Even with the reconstructed ending questions hang in
the air, but still Enduring Love remains a superior Ian McEwan adaptation and one of the better British films presently around.
© Roger Keen 2004
