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The original film turned the abortion of Alfie's child into a traumatic, existential climax, in which the supposedly carefree playboy found himself moved to prayer, however perfunctory it may have been, and brooding over the fact that he had "murdered" his own child. The new film softens these edges, partly by moving the sequence to a much earlier point in the story, where its impact is cushioned by the events that follow, and partly by toning down the dialogue around this moment, so that Lonette will only say that she feels "empty," while Alfie tells the audience how he regrets that he will never get to know his own child. This is not to say that the film in any way condones abortion—indeed, one could argue it goes the other route—but it does reflect a more permissive shift in social attitudes.

Marisa Tomei plays the role of Julie

One other thing that has changed in the past 40 years is the frankness with which films refer to the male sex organs. The new film's opening montage includes a tight close-up on the crotch of a Fleischer-era Superman model in Alfie's apartment—thus underscoring both Alfie's boyish irresponsibility (he declares he has never, ever made his own bed) as well as the fact that he is driven by his lusts. And there are numerous other references to our protagonist's male anatomy besides, particularly during a subplot in which Alfie temporarily loses the ability to perform in bed. What's more, as Alfie waits at the doctor's office for his test results, he meets an older man named Joe (Dick Latessa) in the washroom, who apologizes for how long he must stand at the urinal before his business there is finished.

This, too, leads to a telling example of how the new film has made Alfie a nicer character, intensified our focus on his sexuality, and played down his non-sexual anxieties. In the original film, Alfie's health problems were in his lungs, and although he did befriend an older man at a sanitorium, he needled the man with morbid thoughts of death and cynical speculations about that man's wife and children before ultimately seducing the man's wife herself. This time, however, Alfie looks up to Joe and turns to him for advice when his love life takes a bad turn and all his other friends seem to have abandoned him.

Changes like these are not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, to tell the original story all over again in the exact same form in the current cultural context would not make much sense, and if the new film seems a bit shallower than the original—well, these are shallower times. Marriage, religion, and the other traditions against which the older Alfie rebelled are not as established as they once were, and to some degree they have joined the ranks of acceptable options in a smorgasbord culture that takes everything in its stride; one line in the new film even hints at the increasing social acceptability of same-sex marriages.

Alfie (Jude Law) finds there are consequences to his loose living

In this day and age, it may be enough that a film draws our attention to the emotional pain that is caused, both to oneself and to others, by selfish lifestyles. Granted, there is something a little odd about hearing this lesson in a film that gives us scenes like the one where one character tells our titular lothario, "You never mean to hurt anybody, but you do, Alfie," and then the soundtrack goes to a brand new song by Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger, the latter of whom once embodied London at its swingiest, and whose sexual escapades have famously caused no small amount of pain in their own right. Perhaps the new film does go out of its way to create sympathy for its devil, but as Mick sings over the closing credits, "Old habits die hard," and if any impressionable young minds were to leave this film vowing not to form certain habits in the first place, then that would not be a bad thing.

Talk About It

1. In one scene, Alfie has been thinking about God and death, but doesn't have to worry about "partying with Lucifer" right now because his test results came back negative. Is his reaction realistic? How would you react if you had a brush with illness or possibly death? When should Alfie start worrying about his eternal fate?
   
   

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