Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2894 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-04-11
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Synopsis
While enjoying a romantic picnic in the English countryside, Joe (Daniel Craig) and Claire (Samantha Morton) become party to a tragic accident involving a hot air balloon. Haunted by the incident, and guilt-stricken that he wasn't able to do more, Joe begins to distance himself from Claire. But more disturbing is the behaviour of Jed (Rhys Ifans), another stranger who lent a hand during the accident and begins stalking Joe. At first, Joe thinks that Jed is just suffering from posttraumatic stress and needs to talk about what they've been through together. But with each encounter, as Jed admonishes Joe to let go and admit his feelings, Joe feels more and more uneasy, confused and irritated. This psychological thriller from director Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL) explores how one experience can affect many people in different ways while also examining the subtleties of love and relationships. Craig is superb as Joe, a natural-born leader and rational college professor whose life is turned upside down both by his inability to prevent the accident, and by his interactions with Jed. Ifans is super creepy as the disturbed stalker, a far cry from his turn as the loveable goof Spike in NOTTING HILL.

Customer Reviews

Read the book instead
If you are interested by the plot synopsis read the book instead (Enduring Love). It has much more depth which cannot be shown on film. The actors' try their best (Bill Nighy, as ever, is great in a sadly quite minor role) but it's not the easiest book to make into a film and, while I'm not usually one for writing negative reviews, I wish they hadn't bothered.

Ok. Not a blockbuster but watchable
I read the book twice, once around ten years ago and then again a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the book a lot and was really looking forward to the movie. The movie did resemble the book enough for me although some characters were different to my expectations.
Although I did not expect to see sentence to scene reproduced, I was dissapointed that there were some parts missing; the reporting of Jed to the police, attempted assasination in th restaurant etc. The balooning incident however was very well portrayed I thought, The detail and the finding of the body in the sitting position were scenes brought straight from the book.
Rhys Ilfens did a great job portraying Jed and Daniel Craig's part of Joe was good.
I think for someone who has not read the book first, it might not be the movie for them.. my girlfriend fell asleep... but then again she falls asleep during the loudest action movie too ;)

awkward & unconvincing
The novel has a marvellous first chapter, after which it descends into pretentious tedium. The film, as a whole, is cringe-makingly bad. (Note the sub-Hitchockian score.)