Brief Encounter

David Lean is one of my very favourite directors. He has made some spectacular epic adventures which I adore, but this was a new side to him.

Brief Encounter is about two people called Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) who meet by chance at a railway station. They become friendly and start spending more time together. The inevitable happens, and they fall in love. The problem is they are both married with children.

I am almost always against using narration. It can cheapen the emotional impact of a movie, and it’s often insulting to the audience. Here, it is used most liberally, and while I found it slightly annoying at times (it’s more of an inner monologue, really), it did work most of the time.

The two leads are likeable, and I found the movie both funny, sad, and romantic. It’s not very long (with a running time of just under an hour and a half), and I occassionally wished we could have seen more of Laura’s husband, but overall, it kept the pace brisk and the movie free from interruptions.

It’s a simple movie, but it’s very touching. The ending is excellent and bittersweet. I recommended this to all classic romance fans.