A brilliant romantic drama and rumination on love vs. death
A beautiful and sort of heartbreaking story told by the late director Anthony Minghella. Nina (Juliet Stevenson) is grieving the death of her beloved Jamie (Alan Rickman), who suddenly shows up in her home! Her ecstasy at his return is gradually dimmed by her discovery that the Jamie she adored was not the perfect person she had come to remember. He keeps the temperature in her flat very hot because he is unbearably cold, and spends all night watching old movies on video with his friends.
The fact that we lost the brilliant Rickman (Galaxy Quest, Love Actually, Harry Potter) far too early adds a poignancy to his brilliant performance, which is complemented by Stevenson (Bend it Like Beckham, Nicholas Nickelby), whose turn as a woman overwhelmed first by grief, then joy, then a confusion about whether she can select a dead lover over a new possibility for romance with a teacher (Michael Maloney) who is not only alive but bursting with life.
The acting is uniformly superb, and the ending may very well leave the viewer with both a smile and tears on their face. This is an amazing and tragically overlooked film, and I am continually recommending it to friends who, like me, find it difficult to put into words how astonishing this movie is. I can only suggest that you see it yourself, to see if you can.
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