By the time Alec and Laura bid their understated farewells, you’ll probably have something in your eye yourself.

| Apr 19, 2025

One of the greatest classic romances, beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. This timeless cinematic gem is just as memorable as David Lean's big, epic films.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 16, 2024

For a movie where it appears that very little happens, this classic 1940s British romantic drama packs an almighty emotional punch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 6, 2021

Rate this offering as one of the better British films.

| Feb 1, 2021

Lean solidified his mastery of emotional intimacy even without the epic scope, and crafted what many consider to be one of his finest achievements.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 6, 2019

If it was made today it would probably be tawdry and tasteless but here it strikes just the right note.

| Original Score: 7/10 | May 14, 2019

...captures roiling emotions with elegant panache.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 31, 2018

This is a poet's film, harsh, cruel and lovely. There have been few better British films than Brief Encounter even at a time when our studios are taking their place in the vanguard of this great contemporary art.

| Jan 23, 2018

Lean's sad, buttoned-up account of unconsummated love is about all of us and our cautious natures.

| Jan 17, 2018

Brief Encounter makes an illicit love affair more than that, giving the doomed romance more of a soul than a thousand tragic romances since then.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 31, 2016

Romance and goodness are evoked with equal power and from these conflicting impulses, voluptuous demons spring eternal.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 9, 2015

The leads are outstanding, but credit should also go to the forgotten Cyril Raymond, whose decent dullness as Johnson's husband makes those stolen Thursdays seem so special.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 5, 2015

One of cinema's classic love stories.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 5, 2015

Noël Coward's Brief Encounter is, to my mind, not only the most mature work Mr Coward has yet prepared for the cinema, but one of the most emotionally honest and deeply satisfactory films that have ever been made in this country.

| Nov 3, 2015

One of the most vivid, impassioned and painfully believable love stories ever committed to celluloid.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 2, 2015

Sheer perfection-the gold standard of tragic romances whose influence can still be seen to this day.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 9, 2012

... still embraced as one of the most romantic films ever made, and it has earned its reputation.

| May 4, 2012

Haunting in its evocative mood -- one enhanced by Robert Krasker's cinematography and Lean's meticulous, muted direction -- Brief Encounter primarily hinges on the extraordinary performance by Celia Johnson.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 25, 2012

Retrata seu par romântico com sensibilidade e complexidade (especialmente para a época), pecando apenas pela insistência em introduzir diversas cenas de alívio cômico conduzidas por Holloway e Carey.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 15, 2009

Lovely, small-scale romance by David Lean.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 17, 2009