Brief Encounter (1946)

Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is odd to see a movie made so long ago which feels so truthful in what it has to say about romance and romantic relationships. "Brief Encounter" may not have any sex or swearing, but it features such an emotional gut-punch it feels like it should be rated an adults' only film.Further, "Brief Encounter" rises above the trappings of a romantic movie and becomes a movie about fate, one that is painfully aware of the role that coincidence has in our realisation of our potential for happiness. I have often thought that one of the biggest lies told by virtually all Hollywood films is the one about fate. Hollywood peddles the fib that happiness is out there about to come to you and all you have to do is, well, nothing. Just keep doing what you're doing, working your dead-end job, loving somebody who doesn't love you, yearning for the man or woman down the hall. Whatever's meant to happen eventually does, and you are meant to be happy.What a load of codswallop."Brief Encounter" is one of very few films of any genre that acknowledges the fact that fate plays tricks, that it can give and take, and more often than not, leaves you wondering what could have happened if you hadn't stopped there at that moment, or looked away when you shouldn't have, or weren't buttonholed by a friend at the worst possible moment.It's almost unbearable, but "Brief Encounter" is proof that beauty comes from pain, just as pain comes from happenstance.

It's not a surprise that the stupid catholic church here in Ireland back then made this film banned because of "promoting adultery". Seriously, they thought it's all about everyone involved when it wasn't, I'm sure lots of people who had unhappy marriages, couldn't get a divorce because them clowns would be telling them how to live their lives. Anyways what's unfortunately happened, has happened!Let's get talking about this movie, it's such a very sad tale that Laura and the Doctor had to face in society where cheating was a shame to anyone finding out. I'm sure they would be afraid that their kids will be taken from them if their partner's ever found out. I honestly thought at the end, I was going to see them run away together but unfortunately, they had to call it quits when he had to go to South Africa for his new doctor job. It's just heartbreaking like you honestly would shed a few tears to see that both of them have drifted apart.Very good movie but again, it's heartbreaking 💔

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.

Yes, this is actually a very fine movie.But it's the dialogue, at least for an American, that drives you crazy.Not that there's really anything wrong with it.But you have heard a thousand parodies of this dialogue in American movies and TV. It is the ultra-controlled, almost emotionless, clipped dialogue with just the right sort of - what appears to Americans as - upper-class accents. Declarations of love that are always completely controlled. NO ONE loses control This movie is probably enjoyable for English audiences. But for American audiences who have heard these dialogues parodied a million times, it seems just SO stereo typically English, so very, very Noel Coward.