A suburban woman of Milford, England, Laura (Celia Johnson) once a week travels
to the city where, after shopping, she watches a film at a cinema, returning by
the evening train to her conventional marriage and two children. Much of the
story centers around the small tearoom, and it's mostly comical residents, near
the train's waiting platform, wherein traveller's sip tea and munch on pastries.
On one such visit, Laura stands on the
platform when another train, not stopping there, passes, throwing a small cinder
into her eye. Inside the tearoom she asks for a glass a water to wash her eye
free of the painful bit of grit, whereupon a man, Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard),
stands up to help, noting that he is a doctor.
This simple event is almost forgotten until
the following week the two run into each other again, this time at a busy
restaurant where almost every table is taken. Accordingly, the two share a table
and, later, an afternoon at the movie house. Charmed by the idealistic doctor,
Laura intrigues the married Alec with her strong sense of self and her easy
laugh (as he later puts it: "I love you. I love your wide eyes, the way you
smile, your shyness, and the way you laugh at my jokes"). Feeling a bit guilty,
the couple furtively make plans to repeat their outing the next week, but this
time the doctor, who fills in once a week at the local hospital for a friend,
does not show up until Laura is at the tearoom at the train station, where he
hurriedly explains his absence as his train, travelling in the opposite direction
as hers, arrives. The two again plan an outing the next
week.
Their next venture together, a comical
boating trip downstream, quickly develops into a furtive relationship, in which
they both admit their love for one another. When they take a drive into the
country on this penultimate meeting, however, he purposely misses his train,
intending to stay at his doctor-friend's flat, into which he invites her. She
refuses, returning to the station and her voyage back to Milford, but at the
very last moment, rushes from her train, running through the rain to the flat in
which she has left Alec. At almost the same instant she arrives, however, the
friend returns early,
so that she is forced to rush out the back entrance, ashamed for what has almost
occurred.
Realising the impossibility of their
relationship, and the dark consequences arising in both their relationships with
their spouses, he announces upon their final meeting that he will be travelling
with his family to Africa, and will never see her again. Painfully, they sit
together in the tearoom—which, in fact, has been the very first scene of the
film—awaiting perhaps a tender goodbye, until one of Laura's chattering,
suburban friends enters, and the two are unable to say anything. When Alec's
train arrives he has no option but to tenderly squeeze her shoulder before
disappearing forever, Laura rushing out of the tearoom as another train passes,
possibly intending suicide to squelch what she describes:
"I had no thoughts at all, only
an overwhelming desire not feel anything ever
again."
She returns,
however, to the tearoom, riding home with her incessantly chatting friend to
suffer out the night, as she mentally repeats the events to her seemingly
unaware husband, as he studies a crossword puzzle. As they are about to go up to
bed, he approaches:
Fred Jesson: "You've been a long
way away."
Laura Jesson. "Yes."
Fred Jesson: "Thank you for coming
back to me."
Brief Encounter is one of the most poignant films I have seen. I love it! :) xx
