Do not walk into “Enduring Love” five minutes late, for you will have missed one of the best film openings in recent memory. Lovers Joe (Daniel Craig), and Claire (the always excellent Samantha Morton), are picnicking in one of those beautiful open fields you only see in British films when, all of the sudden, their bliss is interrupted by an out of control hot-air balloon, holding a petrified young boy. His grandfather frantically tries to hold it down, but as the wind picks up, so does the balloon.
Joe tries to help weigh down the balloon by grabbing onto the moorings, as do two other picnickers, but once the wind hits, it starts to ascend. Everyone- including the boy’s own grandfather- lets go of the balloon, except for one of the men, who later falls to his death.
While this opening is absolutely gripping white-knuckle stuff, the rest of the film does not hold up quite as well.
Wracked with guilt over the incident, Joe eventually catches up with another of the would-be rescuers, a deranged born-again Christian, Jed (Rhys Ifans), who we know is crazy due to the fact that he keeps rambling on about “God’s love”, and seems to have a permanent five o’clock shadow.
Convinced that Joe is secretly in love with him, Jed begins stalking him- even going so far as to show up in one of the classes Joe teaches. He proceeds to serenade him with The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.”
Jed eventually becomes dangerous, and wreaks havoc on Joe’s already fragile relationship with Claire. If this film sounds a bit like “Fatal Attraction” with a gay spin, it’s only because that’s exactly what it is.
Directed by Roger Michell, the man behind “Notting Hill”, and “Changing Lanes”, and based on the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan, the film tries to be Hitchcock-ian, but instead comes off as a Brian De Palma-ish imitation. That’s not to say the film sucks…far from it. It contains a couple great performances from Craig, and Morton, a nice supporting turn from Bill Nighy, who seems to be in every Brit-flick that comes out (i.e…”Love Actually”, “Shaun of the Dead”, and now this), and a very effective minimalist musical score reminicent of Bernard Herrmann.
As the stalker, Rhys Ifans is adequate, but his unkempt, crazy guy shtick is starting to wear thin. He seems to play the same character in every film he’s in, with only slight variations- be it Hugh Grant’s crazy flat mate in “Notting Hill”, the crazy wild man in “Human Nature”, the crazy ecstasy dealer in “Formula 51”, the crazy anti-Christ in “Little Nicky”, etc, etc.
The worst part of the movie is easily the cop-out ending (which I won’t spoil here)- that is truly like something out of your run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbuster. If the filmmakers had the guts to give the film the ending it seemed to have prior to the final reveal, “Enduring Love” might have been truly affective.
Instead, the film is merely entertaining. But it is what it is, and while not worth 10 bucks at the AMC, it’s worth a look once it hits DVD- if only for that knockout opening.
“Enduring Love” opens in theatres this Friday.
