Good start, but then it gets ruined

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is not the right word. but it defines a precious last impression about this little gem who seems perfect. for music, details. and, sure, for a great couple. the love story between Laura Jesson and Alec Harvey is so ordinary that it becomes special. for suggestion. and for the impecable performances. for atmosphere. and for the feelings of viewer about an imposible love affair. for delicacy and sensitivity and humor. and for the meet between David Lean and Noel Coward. sure, it is a familiar story between ordinary people. but the genius of this film is represented by chemistry between Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard and for the art to give a perfect story, mixing nostalgia, a meeting in station the portrait of Myrtle Bagot by Joyce Carey and the sensation to be a story about yourself. so, a magnificent gem trminding a sort of romanticism who, today, remains a so useful refuge.

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.

SYNOPSIS: A married woman falls in love with a doctor. NOTES: Nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards: Best Actress, Celia Johnson (lost to Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own), Best Screenplay (Adapted) (lost to The Best Years of Our Lives), Best Directing (won by William Wyler for The Best Years of Our Lives). Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter, Best Feminine Performance of 1946. – New York Film Critics Award. Brief Encounter, number four on the National Board of Review's Ten Best of 1946. Third to The Wicked Lady and Piccadilly Incident as the U.K.'s top box office attraction for 1946. COMMENT: Frankly, Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson are not my idea of romantic lovers. But then of course that is what Brief Encounter is all about. They are not supposed to be. That is why the film was so popular. Not only did it break with tradition but it presented a pair of lovers devoid of Hollywood glamour. Average people with whom many cinema-goers could identify. This of course is what is wrong with the remake with Richard Burton and Sophia Loren. Which is why said remake was not popular. But for my money "Brief Encounter" is just a bit too homely on the one hand, too upper-class on the other, too defiant of convention yet too conventional (which can be seen in the ending and the fact that the affair is not an affair, legally at any rate). I also find the low- life scenes in the railway refreshment room (which is the scene of the original play incidentally) obtrusive. A pity. I like Stanley Holloway, but I don't think he belongs in this film. To my mind, Coward has got the ingredients for his dramatic formula not only wrong but has mixed them incorrectly. But I am a lone voice. Most everyone thinks Brief Encounter is wonderful. Certainly there can be no disputing the wonderful effectiveness of the music score (cleverly drawn from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto, which popularized this work and catapulted Rachmaninoff into the big league of popularly acclaimed composers), or the atmospheric brilliance and absolute attractiveness of Robert Krasker's superlative cinematography. Some deft examples of effective film editing too reveal Lean's former skill as film editor. My 2017 VIEW: This expansion of Coward's one-act play was hailed as one of the all-time great masterpieces of the English cinema when first released. A contemporary viewing is apt to disappoint. True, Johnson and Howard play with great charm and sincerity. Their dialogue is restrained and realistic, and there is a wistful, poignant mood (reinforced by the choice of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto for background music) in their scenes. Unfortunately, a great deal of this mood is dissipated by the low-life scenes of laboriously stilted comedy relief involving Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey — which both play in an extremely stagey, heavy-handed manner. They seem even more theatrical because Lean has filmed their scenes in exactly the same manner as he uses for the tender, romantic scenes between Johnson and Howard, viz. large close-ups.

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.