Film Reviews

Enduring Love

• Rating:
• Director: Roger Mitchell.
• Starring: Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans, Samantha Morton, Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln, Helen McCrory, Susan Lynch.
• Details: UK/ 100 mins/ (18s).

Adapted from the novel by Ian McEwan, Enduring Love is a slight, unsatisfying meditation on love, loss and grief, wrapped up around a stalker thriller. Daniel Craig plays Joe, a scholarly sort who takes his girlfriend, Claire (Morton) out to the countryside, with the intention of popping the question. A bizarre balloon accident leads to the random death of a man, while Joe, and four others who had rushed to help, survive. One of those men, Jed (Ifans) is a curious and creepy sort, who begins to take an unnatural interest in Joe's affairs, and his relationship with Claire. Although worried by this obsessive behaviour, Joe is having a hard time accepting the sheer randomness of the accident, torturing himself by replaying the grotesque image over and over again. After opening with an absolute wallop, Enduring Love never finds a sense of equilibrium. It's a curious film, prone to broody introspection but one that inexplicably seems mired in the worst conventions of the Hollywood thriller. Despite the highbrow affections and tone of the script (love, death, and existence - all that nonsense), and Mitchell's finely tuned direction, you walk away from Enduring Love knowing full well that you've been had.

Review by Garreth Murphy