Synopsis
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
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Cast
- Celia JohnsonLaura Jesson
- Trevor HowardDr. Alec Harvey
- Stanley HollowayAlbert Godby
- Joyce CareyMyrtle Bagot
- Cyril RaymondFred Jesson
- Everley GreggDolly Messiter
- Marjorie MarsMary Norton
- Margaret BartonTea Room Assistant Beryl Walters
- Wilfred BabbagePoliceman at War Memorial (uncredited)
- Alfie BassWaiter at the Royal (uncredited)
- 100
BBC
David Lean ably directed Noel Coward's script for this intensely passionate film in which almost nothing happens. - 100
The Guardian
The film is thrillingly, unapologetically about decency and honour, about, as Laura heartrendingly puts it, controlling oneself. - 100
Time Out
David Lean's wondrous romance, adapted from Noel Coward's story, is one of the most emotionally devastating movies of all time. - 100
The A.V. Club
Encounter remains the definition of timeless, a beautifully shot, heartbreakingly acted, minutely detailed illustration of thoroughly recognizable human frailty. - 100
IndieWire
David Lean’s Brief Encounter captures love at its most ephemeral. - 100
LarsenOnFilm
Shockingly modern in sensibility, construction, and execution, Brief Encounter is very different from what one thinks of as a David Lean movie, whose historical epics have come to define posh, mid-century, cinematic excellence. - 91
Entertainment Weekly
Director David Lean’s magnificent rendering of the short, passionate, and unconsummated affair between two middle-class, middle-aged Brits remains the most memorable treatment of extramarital romance in movie history. - 90
The New York Times
An uncommonly good little picture.