Graham Greene's literary style was always consciously cinematic, but he has been singularly ill-served by those translating his novels to the screen. However, Neil Jordan has made a laudable attempt at conveying the inner lives of the characters in this second filming of Greene's most autobiographical fiction. With a Catholicism more redolent of Evelyn Waugh, the story of doomed adultery between writer Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) and married Sarah (Julianne Moore) has a delicious sense of stolen joy. Then an air raid prompts a spiritual crisis for Sarah and a difficult choice. With Ian Hart outstanding as the detective hired by the jealous Fiennes, and Stephen Rea no less impressive as Sarah's stuffy husband, this is an admirably serious study of adult emotion.

On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.