Hbo Showcase the Affair

 ((Sat. (14), 8-9:45 p.m., HBO))

By TONY SCOTT

Filmed in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire, England, by HBO Showcase, BBC and the Smithson Film Co. Executive producer, Harry Belafonte; producers, John Smithson, David Thompson; director, Paul Seed; writers, Pablo Fenjves, Bryan Goluboff; story, Fenjves, Walter Bernstein; camera, Ivan Strasburg; editor, John Stothart; production designer, Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski; art director, Luana Hanson; sound, Paul Hamblin; music, Christopher Gunning. Director Paul Seed draws compelling perfs from Courtney B. Vance and Kerry Fox as they're drawn together in 1944 in a small English town where the black U.S. unit's stationed before going on to Normandy.
 

Maggie (Fox) is married to Edward (Ciaran Hinds), who's away in the navy, and she has a young son, David. Travis (Vance), attracted to her, pursues her. Her own frustration -- Edward had been unfaithful before shipping out -- her loneliness and longing for passion wear Maggie down. If there isn't the feel of true love, there certainly is the feel of true need.

Edward, discovering them making love, assumes Travis is raping his wife. It's the twist to the story, and one that makes awful sense. Travis insists they've been meeting because they're in love; it's up to her to confirm his story or to deny it so she won't lose son, husband and home. Lies fly, and Maggie, never able to face the truth, finds it looming before her.

Besides the central couple, other black and white alliances are formed, including one between Maggie's unmarried acquaintance Esther (Beatie Edney) and Travis' buddy Barrett (Leland Gantt), but this is a different situation.

The absorbing meller fails to make Maggie's feelings believable. A sentimental epilogue to the vidpic tries smoothing over her character's hesitancies, but it's a tough sell.

Not the acting, though. Vance's innocent Travis and Fox's reluctant Maggie are convincing studies. Gantt as Barrett is a standout, and Edney's saucy Esther shines. Hinds' assured Edward is terrif, and youngRory Jennings' confused David is solid.

The production, first to be completed under an agreement between HBO Showcase and BBC, is striking, and director Seed displays how lovemaking can be depicted with minimal embarrassment.

The role of the black GI in England is well realized (though no real GI talked about fighting "Nazis," they talked about fighting Germans), and the realistic feel of a ruckus at a town fair, of life under siege and of courage on all sides is fine.

Camerawork and editing are admirable, and production designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski has done wonders.