Plot
A cockney womanizer learns the hard way about the dangers of his actions.

Release Year: 2004

Rating: 6.1/10 (26,667 voted)

Critic's Score: 49/100

Director: Charles Shyer

Stars: Jude Law, Sienna Miller, Susan Sarandon

Storyline
In Manhattan, the British limousine driver Alfie is surrounded by beautiful women, most of them clients, and he lives as a Don Juan, having one night stands with all of them and without any sort of commitment. His girl-friend and single-mother Julie is quite upset with the situation and his best friends are his colleague Marlon and his girl-friend Lonette. Alfie has a brief affair with Lonette, and the consequences of his act forces Alfie to reflect and wonder about his life style.

Writers: Bill Naughton, Bill Naughton

Cast:
Jude Law - Alfie
Renée Taylor - Lu Schnitman (as Renee Taylor)
Jane Krakowski - Dorie
Jeff Harding - Phil
Marisa Tomei - Julie
Kevin Rahm - Terry
Max Morris - Max
Omar Epps - Marlon
Nia Long - Lonette
Gedde Watanabe - Wing
Jo Yang - Mrs. Wing
Tara Summers - Carol
Sam Vincenti - Felix
Katherine LaNasa - Uta
Claudette Mink - Bitter Girl

Taglines: Meet a man who never met a woman he didn't love.

Release Date: 5 November 2004

Filming Locations: England, UK

Box Office Details

Budget: $60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: £1,314,156 (UK) (24 October 2004) (376 Screens)

Gross: $13,395,939 (USA) (9 January 2005)

Runtime: 103 min

Trivia:
According to director Charles Shyer, in the shot where Alfie (Jude Law) punches a car windshield, Law actually cracked the windshield. Apparently, the actor wasn't able to put as much effort into punching it until Shyer told him to imagine that it was the paparazzi. As a result, Law punched so hard that a sledgehammer had to destroy the cracked windshield.

Goofs:
Errors in geography: During the scene at the florist's shop (supposedly in downtown Manhattan but filmed in Liverpool), there is a shot looking into the shop from outside. A couple of small Regency-style terraced houses, clearly inappropriate for the film's setting, can be seen reflected in the window.

Quotes:
Alfie: What have I got? Really? Some money in my pocket, some nice threads, fancy car at my disposal, and I'm single. Yeah... unattached, free as a bird... I don't depend on nobody and nobody depends on me... My life's my own. But I don't have peace of mind. And if you don't have that, you've got nothing. So... what's the answer? That's what I keep asking myself. What's it all about? You know what I mean?

Sort of a pointless exercise.

Rating: 4/10

The original 'Alfie,' released in 1966, was considered a revelation for its frank and somewhat dark portrait of the life of a cockney rake, and can now be seen as somewhat prophetic, as it predated (and in some ways helped to introduce) the era of 'swinging London' and the sexual revolution. The 2004 'Alfie' seems to exist for no other purpose than to dress Jude Law up in a hip wardrobe and allow him to wink, smirk, and sigh endlessly at the camera as he sleeps his way through a series of likable women he doesn't deserve. There isn't much of a narrative structure here, and while Law is an engaging screen presence, Alfie is a totally unsympathetic lout who deserves his eventual comeuppance.

It's too bad that Bill Naughton wasn't able to update his original story more effectively, because the film is gorgeous to look at. Despite a few unnecessary bits of cleverness (billboards with odd, art-nouveau messages like 'desire' and 'wish', a lot of mod-ish split screen sequences with still photography, etc.), the cinematography is superb, Law looks dashing in his GQ hipster wardrobe, and the ladies--Susan Sarandon, Jane Krakowski, Nia Long, Marisa Tomei, and newcomer Sienna Miller (whom Law apparently dumped his wife for during filming)--are ravishing. The soundtrack is also superb, made up mostly of new tunes by Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame).

The biggest problem here is that times have changed since the original Alfie: sexual and gender politics don't allow for a protagonist who bed-hops and deceives women with impunity to be cast as heroic or even remotely sympathetic. In the end, the film seems hollow, like a nearly two-hour long visual fashion spread (interestingly, 'Vanity Fair' editor Graydon Carter has a cameo in the film). Beautiful to look at, but ultimately it's just pretty trash.

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