Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ratari My first thought was "Oh just another B/W film from the 40's" But it is much more than that. You have to keep In mind this was a different time. The end of WW2, a country had just survived a traumatic 4 yrs.of war. A country reawakening to a new life. A Spring. People were searching for a new and better reality. 4 yrs of having to keep calm and carrying on. People wanted more in life. This story shows that longing in the two main characters. They find a brief connection to a fantasy that they know in the end is just that and that they, in the end have to do the honorable and right thing and carry on. I will not give the ending away. It is well worth waiting for.

classicsoncall What's striking about this film from a present day perspective is how platonic the relationship between Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) actually was. Made today, the movie would have required the prerequisite hop into bed after the first kiss, but in the 1940's, that would have gotten you into trouble with the Production Code. What I liked about the story was that it featured two ordinary people who weren't glamorous, rich or having any other defining characteristic that might have placed them a notch above average. For moviegoers of the era, that template would have appealed to most at time when people weren't so self absorbed with celebrity and fame. Today, the picture would be a drag as an original release, although for cinema fans there's much here to admire. Director David Lean tells his story with compassion and grace, and though the extramarital affair appears doomed from the start, the fated couple enjoys their moments of fleeting happiness together. What I could have stood less of was the intrusive narration by Celia Johnson's character; my own feeling is that an effective story doesn't need to be translated by one of the characters. And if I didn't know the director of the film was David Lean, I would have guessed Hitchcock, who constantly employed chance meetings, conflicted characters and British ambience, with the railway station setting a natural.

studioAT Classic films are classic films for a reason. People fall in love with a character, or a story, or both, and return to it again and again. 'Brief Encounter' is one of those films that truly deserves the label of classic.It's full of lovely, memorable moments, and sections of dialogue. It also boasts two wonderful performances from the two leads, whose characters we root for when perhaps we shouldn't.I think that many years from now people will still be finding and watching this film, and for good reason. It's a classic part of British cinema.

jacobs-greenwood Director David Lean earned the first Academy recognition for his career when he received a Best Director Oscar nomination, and a Screenplay Writing nomination he shared with Anthony Havelock-Allan and Ronald Neame, for this essential romance drama starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. Johnson received her only Oscar recognition, a Best Actress nomination, for her role as a British housewife in an unexciting marriage such that a "brief encounter" leads to an affair (or does it?). Noel Coward wrote a play called "Still Life", which was the uncredited idea for the film's story.While sitting in her living room with her dependable, yet dull husband Fred (Cyril Raymond) and fumbling with her cross-stitch, Laura Jesson (Johnson) thinks about her relationship with Dr. Alec Harvey (Howard), a man with whom she'd had a chance meeting at a railway station when she'd gone into town. She remembers a great deal of detail, including the characters in the station's coffee shop like the station master Albert Godby (Stanley Holloway), who flirts incessantly with Myrtle (Joyce Carey), the hostess-waitress behind the counter. As if by fate, they meet again and Laura's relationship with Alec, who's also married, grows to the point that they plan to consummate it with a physical encounter at one of his friend's apartment.The film's story is really about what constitutes an affair and at what point is a wife being unfaithful to her husband. Laura contemplates all of this including whether or not to go through with the clandestine meeting. Naturally, there are some bumps and/or other circumstances along the way which make both parties think through their plans and their decisions, making sure that it's a conscience act versus one that just falls together easily.An intricately written and directed drama, against the backdrop of trying, fateful times (World War II) which deserves its high rating.