Two strangers become dangerously close after witnessing a deadly accident.
A professor of philosophy witnesses a tragic ballooning accident and is subsequently stalked by one of the other witnesses.
Based on a book by Ian McEwan, Enduring Love has an arresting start and a powerful end but a very lumpy, uneven middle which lurches between dumb, dull, exasperating, and plain unpleasant. Despite the literary origin the script much prefers monosyllabic utterance, the characters - largely well-educated - frustratingly incapable of articulating what they are going through, with considerable loss of sympathy from the audience.
The casting of Daniel Craig as a mild-mannered professor of philosophy takes some swallowing, especially as his lectures on the nature of love are pitched at an embarrassingly juvenile level. Indeed, when he brings forth his insights, they resemble nothing so much as a pothead convinced of his spurious profundity: "Perhaps love is an illusion! Perhaps love has no purpose!" Far out, man. One of his students, even less articulate, is quite blown away by such "dangerous" thoughts. Craig's level-headed girlfriend does not believe that love is an illusion but can only look on in bewilderment as the accident and the stalker take over his life.
Rhys fans is creepily disturbing as the stalker and Samantha Morton is appealing as the girlfriend but a very good supporting cast including Bill Nighy and Susan Lynch as Craig's friends and Helen McCrory as the dead man's widow is sadly underused. The film benefits from sequences of considerable visual panache: the way that a picnic in idyllic countryside descends into vertiginous nightmare is spectacularly well caught, whilst a scene in which Craig careens back to his apartment in mounting panic employs unsettling camera angles and a camera seemingly mounted on the actor's face to fabulously claustrophobic effect. Very much in tandem with this is the remarkable score by Jeremy Sams which is a gloriously and unashamedly old-fashioned work for conventional orchestra, unafraid to accentuate the melodrama. But in the end it all amounts to too much show, too little substance.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. An extraordinary event brought them together. A deadly obsession will tear them apart. Joe Rose has planned an intimate picnic in the English countryside with his girlfriend Claire. The afternoon is meant to be special; he has brought wine and a ring...he is about to propose. The afternoon is suddenly interrupted when a hot-air balloon plunges from the sky - a young boy trapped within its basket. Joe and three other men instinctually run to the rescue. Yet in their attempt to save the child and pull the sky-bound balloon to the ground, one of the men meets a spectacular and totally unpredictable death. Determined to understand what happened to cause this tragedy, Joe returns to his life as a rational, scientific-minded professor. Yet he cannot escape constant thought of the balloon incident. Actors Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans, Susan Lynch, Bill Nighy, Alexandra Aitken, Helen McCrory, Amanda Root, Corin Redgrave, Justin Salinger, Andrew Lincoln & Roger Frost Director Roger Michell Certificate 18 years and over Year 2004 Screen Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic Languages English - Stereo Subtitles English for the hearing impaired Duration 1 hour and 37 minutes (approx)
Psychological drama based on Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel. The countryside trip of couple Claire (Samantha Morton) and Joe (Daniel Craig) is disrupted by a freak accident and the death of a man. As a result Joe becomes stalked by Jed (Rhys Ifans), one of the men at the scene of the accident, who feels an immediate connection to him - one that becomes more and more intense as weeks go by.
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