Brief Encounter is a very unassuming British postwar film that's about not much beyond a middle aged woman's affair and her conflicted feelings. With a dreary (but stable) home life, she falls for a doctor at a train station. While the romance and characters are nothing special in themselves, the subtly impassioned narration makes it feel much larger than life, imbuing everyday events with touching meaning. The best way this is portrayed is through the in media res introduction where a banal encounter in a café fills the main character with intense anxiety. Only later do we find out why - her tryst is filled with paranoid lookouts, cover stories and rescheduling that add to the complexity and stakes for these everyday people just trying to get more out of life. Overall, the film is very limited in its setting but uses noir like shadows and narration to express a rich inner life.
Review of Brief Encounter
