Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
David Lean
Cast
Celia Johnson,
Trevor Howard,
Stanley Holloway,
Joyce Carey,
Cyril Raymond,
Everley Gregg
Genre
Drama,
Romance
On a train platform, Laura Jesson runs into her acquaintance, Alec Harvey. The acquaintanceship soon becomes a casual friendship, and ultimately a passionate affair. Both married, Laura and Alec must not let the doomed romance wreak havoc on their own families.
David Lean's classic 1945 romance is definitely a slow burn, but it keeps you thinking about it for days afterward. Brief Encounter is beautiful and restrained, reflecting and rejecting the societal structures of the time. The film still holds up today as a tragic romance ruined by circumstances.
IndieWire
David Lean’s Brief Encounter captures love at its most ephemeral.
BBC
David Lean ably directed Noel Coward's script for this intensely passionate film in which almost nothing happens.
LarsenOnFilm by Josh Larsen
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.
The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps
Encounter remains the definition of timeless, a beautifully shot, heartbreakingly acted, minutely detailed illustration of thoroughly recognizable human frailty.
Time Out by Tom Huddleston
David Lean's wondrous romance, adapted from Noel Coward's story, is one of the most emotionally devastating movies of all time.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The film is thrillingly, unapologetically about decency and honour, about, as Laura heartrendingly puts it, controlling oneself.
Chicago Tribune by Maureen M. Hart
Noel Coward's much-loved thwarted romance. [14 Nov 2008, p.C7]
The Telegraph by Jenny McCartney
A romance that stays memorable precisely because it couldn't go anywhere. Celia Johnson plays the married woman who meets Trevor Howard in a train station and falls in love; David Lean directs with forceful restraint. [24 Jun 2013]
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)
A touching, exquisitely handled film dealing with two ordinary people who accidentally fall in love.
IndieWire by Vikram Murthi
David Lean’s Brief Encounter captures love at its most ephemeral.
BBC by Nick Hilditch
David Lean ably directed Noel Coward's script for this intensely passionate film in which almost nothing happens.
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.
Entertainment Weekly by Steve Simels
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.
The New York Times by Bosley Crowther
An uncommonly good little picture.
CineVue by Allie Gemmill
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.
Chicago Reader
Survives more as a social document than a genuinely compelling drama.
Loading recommendations...
Loading recommendations...