Enduring Love (Widescreen Edition)
by Roger Michell
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Actor: Bill Weston, Daniel Craig, Jeremy McCurdie, Rhys Ifans, Samantha MortonDirector: Roger Michell
Producer: Cameron McCracken
Producer: Duncan Reid
Producer: François Ivernel
Producer: Ian McEwan
Writer: Ian McEwan
Producer: Katie Bullock-Webster
Writer: Joe Penhall
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Enduring Love (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: God Only Knows Where I'd Be Without You???
Summary: 5 Stars
I've just watched this film for about the 5th time in 2 months. I have to say I love it more with every viewing. I cannot understand the reviewers who've expressed disappointment.
Enough people have offered a synopsis of the film so I will only write what I feel many missed. This is a mystery story as much as a psychological thriller. There are a lot of unanswered questions. I believe since we humans as a species are always seeking meaning - it is a frustrating point, how we the viewer are left with so many unanswered questions. This frustration may seem an unavoidable outcome of the viewing experience of this psychological drama but only if you want it to be. Sometimes we cannot know everything & that's okay imho. (Although I did wish a few times that I could venture beyond the film's frame. Or that the ending, which I think was perfect, gave more information.) I really feel this is a perfect film in all.
But this not knowing & over analyzing of the "science" of love, attraction & the blurred lines of obsession - is exactly what is frustrating our male protagonist, Joe (Daniel Craig). So I feel it's very clever of the writer to have created such an evocative script where our own fears, anxieties, thoughts on love & sex, desire, passion & obsession are duplications of the main characters'. We become a mirror of Joe. These emotions are slowly drawn out to be examined (and perhaps over analyzed like Joe's!). We like Joe are confused by Jed's bizarre actions: What exactly does he want? Why?
The story is mysterious & engaging. Instead of receiving answers from the movie itself (as we normally do) we are free to discover them from within ourselves upon reflection. Perhaps this is the "let down" feeling that a few viewers expressed? That an artist cannot or will not (whichever the case may be) give us the answers but will shine a light where others have feared to tread all the same. I personally enjoy mature art where I am not spoon fed every detail.
The cinematography by Haris Zambarloukosis is stunningly gorgeous. The color palette is soft grays, sage green, browns, slate blue (in key scenes he adds deep saturated greens and crimson reds) all of which creates a moody feel but also brought to mind (for me) science labs, school rooms & artist's workshops (all which feature prominent in this film). There are scenes where Zambarloukosis jump cuts from medium shot, closer, even closer until the image is blurred. It reminded me very much of film as cubist art. Other scenes are lovely pastorals & on the surface bucolic but then tragedy strikes. These scenes have a tactile tapestry feel to me.
Jeremy Sams' score is sublime. I love the music so much this last view was actually because I wanted to focus solely on the score rather than the visual scenes. The score is hauntingly beautiful - reminiscent of Ralph Vaughn-Williams in the pastoral ballon & field scenes. In others it's abstract - jarring to the senses & expresses the disturbing personality of the stalker (brilliantly played by Rhys Ifans) & his confused and angry object of desire, Joe (equally dazzling performance by Daniel Craig).
The story asks what is love? Is it simply biology? What is the meaning of falling in love? Where will love take us? What does love do to us? What do we do to love? Will we be able to hold on regardless of how hard the wind blows or will we tire, weaken & let go? What is the difference between desire & love? Is there a difference? What about passion & violence? How do they figure into the nature of love? Can we be objective while looking at the one we love? Will love "save" us?
Which reminds me: There is also this "savior" theme running through the story. An existential quest which may essentially be at the heart of Joe's breakdown. Why couldn't he hold on a little longer & save the doctor? The doctor's wife comments that her husband was always running off trying to save someone. Jed has that crazed Jesus freak look. Jed sees so many "signs". Mainly that Joe & he were brought together for a divine reason. Jed sees meaning & symbology in everything whereas Joe struggles to see beyond a world ruled by the laws of science. More questions & metaphors abound.
I've not yet read the book but understand Penhall's screenplay deviates from McEwan's novel. I think this is perfectly acceptable. I feel that since film is a different medium - it's to be expected. However, I still plan on reading the novel to see if the changes seemed necessary. They could have made changes just so that they could have these specific actors play these parts. McEwan was an associate producer of the film so this leads me to think he didn't mind his story being revamped a bit. I plant to definitely purchase the book & also the music score in the near future.
I will say that I truly enjoyed Penhall's dialogue. It was very realistic & darkly humorous at times. My favorite scenes are when Joe (Craig) tells off his licentious brother in law & then there's that fantastic scene where Jed (Ifans) serenades a Beach Boy's tune ("God Only Knows") to Joe in the middle of Joe's biology class - absolutely brilliant (and creepy!).
This film is a dark, moody, tense, psychological thriller which may leave you with more mysterious thoughts & questions than before having watched it but that's what makes for an interesting life - right?
Description of Enduring Love (Widescreen Edition)
In ENDURING LOVE, a Joe (Craig) and Claire's (Morton) romantic picnic is disrupted after a hot air balloon drifts into a field, appearing to be in trouble. Inside the balloon is a young boy and the pilot whose leg gets tangles in the anchor rope. After three men, including Joe, rush to secure the basket and try to save the two passengers, it seems they cannot rescue the pilot, who eventually falls to his death and the young boy remains unscathed. When Joe and one of the other men, Jed, go to retrieve the body of the fallen man, Jed feels an instant connection with Joe--one that, as the weeks go by, becomes ever more intense.A red hot-air balloon floating gracefully over the green English countryside leads to a shocking death in Enduring Love, an eerie and hypnotic movie based on a novel by Ian McEwan. Two men tried and failed to help, and afterwards Joe (Daniel Craig, Sylvia, The Mother) finds himself being stalked by the hungry-eyed Jed (Rhys Ifans, Vanity Fair, Human Nature). Like a gangly wraith, Jed follows Joe and begs him to recognize the passionate love Jed feels certain was sparked by the balloon accident. Jed's obsession crawls into Joe's head and his life, clawing at his happy relationship with his girlfriend Claire (Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar, Minority Report) and derailing Joe into an obsessive spiral of his own. Enduring Love builds the taut delirium of a Hitchcock movie. Ifans, best known for his comic performances, curls his tall frame into a seemingly helpless but creepily aggressive shuffle; the haunted eyes of Craig and Morton make the crumbling of their relationship as suspenseful as Jed's stalking. Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Persuasion) uses fresh, jarring images and sinuous visual rhythms to craft a tight thriller with unsettling emotional layers. --Bret Fetzer
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