Cinema - Alfie (15)

Lewis Gilbert's 1966 original was such a shocker for its time, the likes of Terence Stamp and Anthony Newely rejected the role of the ice-cold womaniser who stood dumbly by while the woman he got pregnant went to a back street abortionist.

Almost 40 years later, post feminism, post new lad culture and post ladettes, casual sex and an aversion to commitment is just as likely to be a trait of the woman as it is the man, so Law's behaviour is not something to be alarmed by. In fact it is almost the norm.

Director Charles Shyer switches the action from London to Manhattan, although Law's character still has a 1960s look about him. The cut of his suits and the moped he cruises about on all look more new wave than New York.

Alfie's cheeky monologues to camera have been retained, as has his scathing attitude to women. Working as a limousine driver gives him the chance to chat-up and bed a long line of women, all of them desperate, lonely or just plain stupid. Only Susan Sarandon stands out as a participant who is happy to get as little emotional reward as Law does from their fling.

All the rest succumb doe-eyed and dimly to his shallow charms. It's as if Sex and the City never happened.

The strong moral tone of the original, which dictated that Alfie got his comeuppance when his philandering finally began to have consequences. Here his affair with his best friend's wife ends with her becoming pregnant and he is left to contemplate how his reckless search of fun, which he has always kidded himself into believing hurts no one, has caused real pain to someone he cares for, ironically a bloke.

Law is no Michael Caine and his Alfie is not as emotionally impervious to the anguish he causes, which in the context of Bill Naughton's original script just makes him an introspective whinger.

By Gary Lawrence