The film is thrillingly, unapologetically about decency and honour, about, as Laura heartrendingly puts it, controlling oneself.
100
Time OutTom Huddleston
Time OutTom Huddleston
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. ClubKeith Phipps
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Encounter remains the definition of timeless, a beautifully shot, heartbreakingly acted, minutely detailed illustration of thoroughly recognizable human frailty.
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.
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.
We rarely see films that are so loaded in meaning and symbolism yet subdued in action. It’s a treat to be sure, one that can be relished seventy years on with renewed fervour.
60
Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Survives more as a social document than a genuinely compelling drama.