Enduring Love (2004)

This film really resonated with me personally. I know it probably doesn't deserve this rating on an objective scale, but I liked it a lot. First off, there is the presence of Daniel Craig. Enough said. I like Samantha Morton a lot but her character is one of the biggest problems with this film. She is empty, walled-off and almost cruel to her husband, which doesn't necessarily make for a weakened movie, but her actions betray the realism of the narrative. (It starts to do that to itself later, but she's the first step of several.) She simply can't accept the fact that crazy Rhys Ifans is enamored with the man she loves, turning a blind eye to the most blatant of evidence. Her ignorance is unreal, existing only so that the plot can move around her rather than with her. Ifans himself delivers a rather divisive performance; it is a little hard to take him seriously, but he goes through the motions with such verve that you're tempted to just surrender to him. This somewhat reflects the narrative: after Joe and Claire witness a horrible hot air balloon accident, Jed (Ifans) develops an unrequited sort of bond with Joe, asking him to pray with him over a man's corpse. This soon extends to following him around, standing outside his window and creating horrifying murals. His conviction that "something passed between them" is so great that even Joe wonders if he has a point, if the incident created some twisted link between the men. Of course, things quickly go sour. This is adapted from what many call Ian McEwan's finest novel. What this movie amounts to is a stalker thriller with a swirl of shallow rumination about the nature of love thrown in for good measure. It hits its peak of ridiculousness at the climax, which is apparently nothing like that of the McEwan novel and solely exists to fulfill some trashy fantasy fodder. That said, it was kind of hot. I am a bad person. AND AFTER ALL THIS PANNING I'm still giving Enduring Love four stars. Like I said, I think it was exactly what I needed at that point in my life. Fed up with the shallow chemical reactions that constitute what we call "love" (which the movie attacks gracefully), wanting something alternately beautiful (this movie is gorgeously filmed and exploding with vivid colors) and heavy, something wistful and a little downtrodden. This really hit the spot. I don't think I'll ever watch it again, for fear that it'll compromise my memories of it, so I'll just store it away and not think about it too much anymore.