A lot of people think of Brief Encounter as a comment on stuffy middle-class suburban culture and its restrained attitudes towards love, and while I’d be a complete douche not to see this, I think that such a narrow view takes away from what is actually a touching story about 2 people who fall in love and have to make the difficult choice of whether or not to stay with their respective spouses.

I think the film was quite controversial for it’s time as it dealt not only with the taboo subject of extramarital affairs but did so from a woman’s perspective. On top of this both the main characters, Laura Jesson and Alec Harvey, are middle-aged. Indeed, there’s an interesting contrast between their measured response to attraction (which occasionally spills over into something more passionate) and that of the young couple who both work at the train station and can be seen, carefree and frolicking around, in a scene near the end of the film. The fact that Laura and Alec mostly meet at a train station also adds further poignancy to their doomed affair as it suggests impermanence and anonymity.

Both Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard are fantastic in their lead roles but it’s Johnson who really shines as the film’s protagonist. Laura is simultaneously reserved and impulsive, and we’re left with the constant feeling that she could do something drastic at any minute (demonstrated by her almost throwing herself in front of a train when Alec says his final goodbye). This sense of tension and struggle within her character keeps us guessing right up until the end as to whether she will actually leave her good-natured but dull husband, Fred, and is ultimately what makes the film so watchable.

Brief Encounter does, undoubtedly, throw up some interesting points about class and culture, but the reason it’s so powerful is because all that restraint and control is stripped away when Laura and Alec are together, liberated and happy in their love. They know it’s impossible and can’t last, but watching their relationship blossom and witnessing their mad moments of indecision we’re reminded of how fragile our morals and values really are in the face of something so powerful.