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Play it again, Alfie

The mating game has changed over the decades, and a sexier Alfie is dancing to a tune that offers some intriguing variations but loses some of the original's depth.

What it was all about for Alfie in 1966 is the same as it is for Jude Law's reincarnation of Michael Caine's breakthrough role. "It" is the quest for sex, of course, as anyone who ever hummed Burt Bacharach's theme song must know.

Securing that carnal pastime is different today, especially in modern Manhattan, to which Alfie Elkins' oversexed adventures are transplanted. It's tougher to be a playboy where the bunnies are all better off. Caine's lower-end London wasn't populated with such confident women. Single parenthood can now be a show of strength. Abortion has been legalized since Caine's version, blunting a large part of the story's edge. Charles Shyer's remake isn't bold enough to consider sexually transmitted diseases; the worst consequence here is bruising another male's ego.

The result is that the 21st century Alfie Elkins is American Gigolo with a British accent. Law can certainly fit that bill: impossibly handsome - Caine's offbeat looks made his lovers seem more desperate - with a convincing preen and enough confidence as an actor to handle Alfie's habit of narrating his own tale directly to the camera. This is an irresistible performance as an antihero who, for all his contemporary glamor, feels curiously outdated.

By now it's generally acknowledged that promiscuity can be dangerous. We've seen enough AIDS-related dramas and fatal attractions onscreen to glean that. In 1966, though, multiple sexual partners were evidence of the dominant sexual paradigm; women were there primarily to please men, who didn't always need to return the favor. That isn't the case today.

Caine's Alfie got his comeuppance, and so does Law's, but with a different rhythm, which mutes the moral of the story. Bill Naughton's original plot has been tweaked to show throughout the film that women don't really need an Alfie in their lives, a point that devastated Caine's character when it emerged at the end of the original. Law's Alfie, knowing it all along, can simply strut into the sunset and his next conquest. We don't learn to avoid playboy behavior, just how to do it more wisely.

Sexual politics aside, Shyer's version of Alfie has a lot going for it. Law's exceedingly sexy performance is the primary attraction, immeasurably aided by Shyer's and Elaine Pope's constantly witty adapted screenplay. Some lines in this film are certain to become part of our seduction vernacular. The women in Alfie's life are vibrantly sketched, and the actors playing them are terrific, especially Nia Long, whose surrender to Alfie's charm leads to the film's best drama, and Susan Sarandon as a socialite who throws cold water on Alfie's overheated affection.

Shyer also stages several effective sequences: a seductive billiards game, an emotional exit (shown with two perspectives) from an abortion clinic, and any scene featuring Sienna Miller, a drop-dead screen presence and now Law's real-life companion, as Alfie's dream girl turned nightmare. Shyer's frisky direction here is surprising after a decade of wedding cake froth (two Father of the Bride films) and boredom (The Affair of the Necklace).

Then again, there are problems. We realize Alfie's life is a waste long before he does, causing the third act to drag. Padraic McKinley's editing is sometimes too zippy, and Marisa Tomei's single mom role gets one or two scenes too many to make its point. There's also annoying original music featuring Mick Jagger's vocal caricatures of himself, always distracting from, rather than enhancing, Alfie's problems. What's that all about, Mick?

Grade: B

Director: Charles Shyer

Cast: Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, Nia Long, Omar Epps, Sienna Miller, Jane Krakowski, Dick Latessa

Screenplay: Elaine Pope, Charles Shyer, based on the stage play and screenplay by Bill Naughton

Rating: R; sexual situations, profanity, mature themes

Running time: 103 min.