From a chance meeting on a train platform, a very handsome, middle-aged married doctor Alec (Trevor Howard) and a sweet suburban housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) enter into a quiet yet passionate love affair, meeting every Thursday at a small café at the station to play out their romance. Brief Encounter is based on a Noel Coward play, director David Lean (of Doctor Zhivago fame) explores the thrill and pain of an illicit romance in 1945 Britain.
Subtle yet emotional and definitely from another era, Brief Encounter is timeless in the age-old struggle over morals and extra marital affairs. The brilliance of Brief Encounter is the movie does not focus on the extra marital affair. Rather, it focuses on a chance encounter between two very nice and like-able people who connect organicly and are attracted to each other but have lives that cannot work together. From her living room sitting with her husband, through voice-over we learn all about Laura's brief encounter with Alec.
Shot in black and white, the shadows, both literal and figurative are cunning and remarkable while the newspaper blowing about Laura and Alex's feet as they try to sneak a kiss in the train station adds a modern reality in tune with the current obsession with illicit affairs. However this relationship is natural and nearly perfect. Brief Encounter is a riveting love story where the words spoken are so elegantly and draws the audience into a brilliant space where passions may not be fulfilled. This movie explores love between a man and a woman in its purest form.
Unfortunately, you don't see movies like this one anymore. Celia Johnson is amazing and her performance garnered her an Academy Award nomination. Today's actresses should watch her carefully. Everything about her performance is precise. Not one thing out of place nor predictable. It is refreshing to watch a film in which the actors must hold the movie together as opposed to special effects.
Brief Encounter is truly one of the great movies of all time, and I am happy to have stumbled across it. IT IS MY NEW FAVORITE FILM! You will want to watch it now. PLAY PRESS!
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