Enduring Love (2004)

You won't be disappointed!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The great music score, cinematography and acting makes it good, if not great. Great is tough to reach, and much like the balloon in the story it goes too high and slips out of our grasp. Ian Mcewan has written excellent novels, Atonement being a highlight, but this one just tries to achieve too much and doesn't have the meat in the characters to back it up. However, it does make you think, and sometimes squirm with its observations and insights. I saw this as more an existentialist drama than a thriller, though the Hollywood crazy stalker plot point was probably enlarged to keep it entertaining, but it was the quieter and more introspective moments that caught my interest. Daniel Craig does a terrific job of playing a man obsessed with looking for a seemingly impossible to find answer to the mysteries of the randomness of life and death. Rhys Ifans plays the truly unique character and his creepy viewpoint makes you shift in your seat. It's consistently engaging but never a masterpiece, it's takes the loud and angry showdown rather than the quiet thinking that made it work to start. Will still make you never look at a hot air balloon the same way again.

Masquerading as a highbrow piece of art, ENDURING LOVE turns out to be just another psycho-killer movie about a deranged stalker and one that's indebted to the wave of psychological thrillers that flooded cinemas in the wake of FATAL ATTRACTION. For all its posturing, stylised shots and deep and meaning conversations, by the climax it's followed exactly the same routes as all the other movies in this sub-genre.The level of pretension is high and those who detest watching middle-class types sitting around dinner tables, drinking copious amounts of red wine and discussing the meaning of life should look away now. Daniel Craig plays a stuffy, pompous and unlikeable character and despite some strong acting is never able to overcome audience aversion to his role. Rhys Ifans, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air, even if he does play an even murkier variant on his amusing character in NOTTING HILL. There are many familiar faces in the supporting cast, all underutilised, while Samantha Morton stars as Craig's utterly selfish and unpleasant girlfriend who seems unaware of her partner's predicament until her world comes crashing down.For all its flaws, ENDURING LOVE does have a couple of stand-out moments: the climax of the story is shocking and made even more so by the subtle way it's acted out; a definite highlight. The opening balloon accident is very well filmed and another strong moment; it's just a shame the bits inbetween involve such unappealing characters. Not that ENDURING LOVE is a bad film, because it passes the time quite well and has a decent pacing; it's just that this is a story we've seen all too many times before, no matter how much they try dressing it up otherwise.

'Enduring Love' manages to be grip the viewers attention right from the very beginning. We are given some wonderful shots of the beautiful British landscape at the centre of which there is couple on a picnic. However a hot-air balloon appears to be on the loose and what follows is a terrible accident that effects their lives. 'Enduring Love' is visually impressive mostly due to the excellent cinematography and the background score contributing to the scenes. Penhall's writing is very good (sharp dialogues, unfolding events, well-defined characters) but in the middle it gets a bit slow-paced. The stalker subplot could have been done with less focus (that extra scene during the rolling credits wasn't necessary and the film may have been stronger without it) as it was working better as a movie about Joe and his fragile relationship with Claire. The movie is pretty much character driven and it heavily relies on the performances. Fortunately, this is where 'Enduring Love' scores high. Daniel Craig breathes into a role that seems made for him. He portrays Joe's guilt, confusion, patience and determination with amazing skill. Samantha Morton has less screen time but she is just as good while she gives a beautifully understated performance. Rhys Ifans springs a surprise in remarkably playing a homosexual stalker with Clerambault's syndrome. Bill Nighy and Susan Lynch are adequate in their tiny roles. For me 'Enduring Love' has been a strange movie watching experience but as I thought more about it, I grew to understand and appreciate it more. It does have its flaws as mentioned earlier but it's a good character study and visually interesting.

Ian McEwan's novel 'Enduring Love' tells a complex story that touches on the nature of human relationships. But on reading it, I was also struck by how much like a thriller it seemed, with its plot centred on a character who undergoes an experience both frightening and unusual; in fact, so unusual that it isolates him from others and forces him to handle it alone, with an ever-increasing sense of paranoia. So it's not so surprising to see it now adapted as a movie. In fact, the central thriller is downplayed compared to the book and this is not necessarily a bad thing, as that part of the story is relatively one-dimensional (in the way that thrillers often are), whereas it's the hinterland of this tale that is more ambiguous and interesting. And the mood and themes of the novel, with its rationalist narrator, are ably reflected in the movie, with Daniel Craig excellent as a very un-Bondish protagonist.Director Roger Michell shows a generally sure touch, though in places the score is a little intrusive. While the compressed plot is a mixed blessing: the book, I thought, went on too long in the same vein; but equally, made a little more sense than the shortened version here. An element of playfulness present in the text has also failed to transfer to the screen. But it's still an intelligent rendition of a story that could easily have been butchered; and a modest success.