Review of Enduring Love (2004) by Andy F — 26 May 2005

[font=Book Antiqua][color=white]When director Roger Michell released [i][font=Book Antiqua]Changing Lanes [/font][/i]in 2002 I was completely surprised and in a sense blown away by the attention and involvement to its main characters. That film established Michell as a filmmaker to keep your eye on, and since then he has made a picture a year. In 2003 he directed [i][font=Book Antiqua]The Mother[/font][/i], a film that I have finally tracked down at an obscure video store and will be watching very soon. Yesterday I watched the film he released last year, called [i][font=Book Antiqua]Enduring Love. [/font][/i][/color][/font].

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[font=Book Antiqua][color=white]The film centers around three main characters - a loving couple played by Daniel Craig and Samantha Morton, and a mysterious man with long, fringy hair played by Rhys Ifans. The couple is sharing a peaceful picnic in a vast land of green as the film opens, but shortly after the incident that is the driving force behind everything that happens throughout occurs. A hot air balloon begins to fall to the ground. A child is in it. Joe (Craig) begins to run after it and grabs onto the ropes. Another man breaks quickly from his car and runs to help from the road. There are two others who also appear almost out of nowhere to grab on and add weight. Michell directs this scene in such a unique and tense way, putting you right in the middle of everything. It feels like you're holding on to the balloon as well. As they begin to notice that they cannot prevent it from elevating again, one by one they let go before its too high. Only one man keeps a hold. Shortly after the remaining men on the ground are standing by a body that is turned inside out from the impact of a long fall. Joe stands stunned next to the man, and a man who we later find out is named Jed (Ifans) accompanies him. Jed begs Joe to not walk away from the body without kneeling down and praying first. But Joe is not that type of person as he states repeatedly. Jed continues to agitate Joe and goes to the point of putting all the guilt of the death on him alone, making him think he let go before anyone else. Joe kneels down and they pray together as everyone watches. This is a moment Joe will not be able to forget for a long time even if he wanted to, because he will soon find out Jed?s obsession with him.[/color][/font].

[font=Book Antiqua][color=white]I know I basically just described the entire first ten minutes of the movie, but believe me, I haven?t given anything away. It?s a setup that must be told. This is a movie that could have easily been caught in the stalker movie clichés in numerous sequences, but I felt that Michell did a great job of creating a uniquely haunting environment and in some key scenes constructs a new directing style all his own. As the story continues to unfold it gets only better. Throughout the first half of the film I knew I liked it, but I never felt like going above a 7 rating, but the final stretch works very well and is startling to a point. The acting elevates it all too as you might have suspected. Daniel Craig (who also stars in my next Michell viewing, [i]The Mother[/i]) takes a challenging role and pulls it off with great nervousness and intensity. Samantha Morton plays his girlfriend Claire in another cruise control role. It just seems like every performance she delivers is with such ease. She is a natural. The Rhys Ifans character is a huge key to making the film work. The psychotic stalker in film?s like this are always the key. The actor playing them could make them unbelievably laughable or genuinely mad. I don?t think I?ve seen Ifans better than he is as Jed. As good as Craig and Morton were in the film, he is even better. To take a film like [i]Enduring Love [/i]and make it work is an achievement to behold as a director, and Roger Michell does it. [/color][/font].