One of the most highly regarded of all British films, Brief Encounter was also the first major international success for director David Lean. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. It won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. In the recently issued British Film Institute Top 100 films, it placed second, behind only The Third Man (1949).

While Lean began his career as a film editor, it was his fourth turn as a director. As with his first three films, the story was based on a play by the legendary Noel Coward. Coward himself worked as a screenwriter and producer, along with frequent Lean collaborators Anthony Havelock-Allen and former cinematographer Ronald Neame.

Brief Encounter establishes its mood early. There is a thunderous Rachmaninoff score. The black and white cinematography of a bleak but busy train station is reminiscent of the best of American film noir.

The story centers around Laura (Celia Johnson), a housewife approaching middle age. Our heroine is tempted to begin an affair with Alec (Trevor Howard), a doctor who is smitten with her. They meet every Thursday at the train station. Our viewpoint is almost always from Laura's perspective. Voiceovers provide her intimate thoughts, while close-ups betray the moral trauma that she is going through.

The passionate but circumspect romance between Laura and Alec is contrasted with the less intense but more open courtship between comic relief characters Albert (Stanley Holloway) and Myrtle (Joyce Carey). Class differences are telling, as Laura and Alec are upper middle class, are well educated, and have lilting accents. Meanwhile Albert and Myrtle are lower middle class, use common expressions, and have harsher accents.

Myrtle runs a coffee shop at the train station. Her inventory of stale sandwiches and rolls, which she asserts as being fresh, provides a running joke throughout the film. Her saucy character is much more lively than that of Laura, whose personality is nearly imprisoned behind a wall of propriety and appearance. Laura feels that she is being daring merely by gazing out of a train window, instead of pretending to read a book.

Surprisingly, Brief Encounter scores higher with men than with women, as judged by user ratings at imdb.com. Perhaps men are more impressed with the film's status and historical importance. More likely, some women may lose patience with Laura's indecision, reticence, and politeness, and her cyclical, precious, guilt-ridden inner dialogue. Any woman with a husband as dull as Fred (Cyril Raymond) shouldn't be so shocked to discover an attraction for the Perfect Man (gentle, modest, attentive, well-spoken, and a doctor!) when he arrives.

Brief Encounter provided the first leading man role for Trevor Howard, whose long and successful career also included the previously mentioned The Third Man. Howard was still in his twenties when Brief Encounter was filmed, no doubt causing him to cringe whenever writers referred to the unrequited lovers as being 'middle-aged'.

There really is no other film like Brief Encounter, unless you include its 1974 remake. While the made-for-television production landed the big names of Richard Burton and Sophia Loren as the leads, it suffers badly in comparison with the original. (73/100)

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older