I Watch Films: Brief Encounter

 

Brief Encounter

Laura Jessen and Alec Harvey are sitting at the tea table of a railway refreshment room, both looking glum. A friend of Laura’s arrives and starts chatting; Laura distractedly introduces Alec as a doctor, going in the other direction, and how he will soon be going to Africa. Alec leaves and there’s a little confusion, Laura seems unwell.

Back at home Laura and her husband talk of nothing much, then she thinks back on her relationship with Alec. She doesn’t speak but she phrases it as a confession to her husband in the voice over (in her mind).

It turns out she met Alec when she got something in her eye at the refreshment room. (The refreshment room and the regular staff of the station who come in and out there form a contrasting thread to the main story). He got it out and made sure she was okay. It turns out that Thursday is her regular day, she comes into town, does some shopping, goes to the cinema etc. At the start she’s buying a radio for her husband’s birthday, though it’s expensive so she puts some money down to collect it the nest week. Alec also comes to town on a Thursday, though in his case it’s to take a shift at the hospital that lets his doctor friend go to London. They meet at the chemist’s one week, then the next go to lunch and he goes with her to the cinema.

What begins as an innocent friendship swiftly deepens, and when some of Laura’s friends see them having a posh lunch they begin lying about it. They are both married, both have children. Their effort to have an affair breaks down when the doctor friend returns unexpectedly early. They decide to break it off, Alec taking the offer of a job in Africa. While the two are trying to put their goodbye into words they are interrupted by Laura’s friend. Laura feels despair, considers throwing herself under a train, doesn’t and reconciles herself to her married life.

Good performances and some excellent visuals (in black and white) help lift this slightly understated failed romance. Laura’s voice over perhaps slightly oversells it, yet her clipped accent and measured speech keeps it grounded when the emotions threaten to become melodrama.

Watch This: Very fine British 40s drama
Don’t Watch This: Two people consider having an affair, hang around at a railway station