At a Glance

A serial womaniser begins to question his lifestyle. Back in the days when men were cavemen and women were treated like doormats, Alfie came along and changed the world. Though pitched as a comedy, it was in reality a brutal morality tale about a sexual predator who ruins lives without care or conscience. Women saw themselves portrayed as victims, desperate for male attention and helpless without it, vulnerable, unstable and oppressed. So they fought for change. Men, meanwhile, were finally introduced to the notion of shame, and learned to treat women with respect. Four decades later a remake comes along that proves just how different things are today. As the original Alfie, Michael Caine was magnetic in the role. Though charming on the surface, impeccably suited and booted with decent wheels and a fair few quid in his pocket, he was a monster, selfish and ruthless with eyes like a shark, cold and hard. As the Noughties Alfie, Jude Law is every bit as pretty and certainly as charming as Michael Caine, but the ruthless, misogynistic aspects of his predecessor’s personality have now been replaced by conscience and empathy. This Alfie has a feminine side. Though he still manages to create all kinds of havoc, as he works his way from Marisa Tomei to Susan Sarandon via Nia Long and Sienna Miller, Alfie no longer holds all the cards. These days it’s the women who are in charge, and that gives this slickly enjoyable, casually amusing and lightly dramatic remake a perspective all of its own.