This remake of Lewis Gilbert's 1966 film of the same name features Jude Law filling the shoes Michael Caine once wore in the title role of Alfie. As with the original, Law occasionally speaks directly to the camera while his character talks of the opposite sex. Under the direction of Charles Shyer, Alfie follows a charming, if morally lacking, womanizer from one bed to the next. While his actions arise more from nonchalance than malice, Alfie nonetheless faces a moral dilemma when considering that he's impregnated one of his latest girlfriends. Alfie also includes performances from Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, and Nia Long.
Writer/director Charles Shyer's reinvention of the beloved 60's morality tale about a serial-womanizer's quest for meaning in life is musically rooted in a voice that's lived the experience: Mick Jagger. And if the Stones' oft-cliched frontman seems a decidedly left-field choice as film scorer, his chemistry with collaborator/former Eurythmics musical spark Dave Stewart yields a surprisingly warm, often introspective slate of songs and atmospheric underscore. Jagger's solo work has often been muddied by chasing the pop production zeitgeist of the moment, but his efforts with Stewart here largely turn on a stripped-down, organic folk-blues sensibility that can't escape mostly positive parallels with the Stones' own acoustic oeuvre. Soul singer Joss Stone turns in a masterfully bluesy cover of the original film's hit Bacharach-David theme song that belies her teenage years (also interpolating it into Stewart/Jagger's "Wicked Time," which also features noted Jamaican rapper "Nadz" Seid), while Sheryl Crow duets with Jagger on the single version of the song-score's thematic anchor, "Old Habits Die Hard."
1. Old Habits Die Hard - Dave Stewart/Mick Jagger (reprise)
2. Blind Leading The Blind - Mick Jagger/Dave Stewart (live, live acoustic version)
3. New York Hustle
4. Let's Make It Up - Mick Jagger/Dave Stewart
5. Wicked Time - Joss Stone/Mick Jagger/Nadirah "Nadz" Seid
6. Lonely Without You (This Christmas) - Mick Jagger/Joss Stone
7. Darkness Of Your Love - Gary "Mudbone" Cooper/Dave Stewart
8. Jack The Lad
9. Oh Nikki
10. Blind Leading The Blind - Mick Jagger/Dave Stewart
11. Standing In The Rain
12. Counting The Days
13. Old Habits - Mick Jagger/Dave Stewart (reprise)
14. Alfie - Joss Stone
15. Old Habits Die Hard - Mick Jagger/Dave Stewart (bonus tracks, featuring Sheryl Crow)
Alfie
