Review of Brief Encounter (1945) by Sausages M — 24 Dec 2010

This is the closest to a perfect romantic (in the true, dramatic sense) story I have ever come across. Celia Johnson is just plain magnificent and Trevor Howard suitably understated but powerful. It's so ordinary, and that's why it's so brilliant. I also weep for the England of this film that was lost forever shortly afterwards- a sensible world with no pretensions. A little austere, but perhaps psychologically all the better for it. Brief Encounter's doomed romance reflects this world magnificently. The other amazing thing is that it takes a potentially explosive and divisive subject- adultery- and presents it with a matter-of-factness that is almost innocent. It's about human frailty and how life can be cruel. And it's also about the complexity of relationships.

I guess we shouldn't have expected anything less from a Noel Coward play brought to the screen by that 40s directorial behemoth, David Lean. In a word, brilliant.