The 7.39

I approached this movie thinking it can't be much --- and I'm glad to state I was wrong.

The story is easy to understand --- life can become a rut and then you find yourself stuck in a daily routine. The rewards become transparent and frustration can set in quickly.

Here we have two people, Carl & Sally, who come to cross purposes on a commuter train one morning. With an apology later from Carl the ice is broken between our two characters. They both find out through just daily talking that there is a common thread between them. A friendship develops and then more comes into their lives.

What's so marvelous about 'The 7:39' is how the relationship progresses and the brilliant ability of the writer and director to keep this old and over told story consistently fresh and lively, start to finish.

It's 2 hours long but it's worth the watching !!!

The 7.39 is the latest screenplay to hit the (TV) screens from the pen of David (One day) Nicholls comes across as an update or homage to Brief Encounter. The 1945 original is rightly considered a classic, written by Noel Coward and directed by David Lean it's very much a film of it's time.

This was shown recently over two nights on BBC1 and follows a similar pattern with the two leads being tempted into cheating on their partners. David Morrissey is well cast as the middle management office worker married to Olivia Coleman with two teenage children. Sheridan Smith is equally effective as a personal trainer recently engaged to Sean Maguire who clearly works out.

Knowing David Nicholls this won't be a "and they all lived happily ever after" ending and it isn't. But the journey is what this film is all about and it's quite a ride, with highs and lows along the way as the miss-matched pair get to know each other better.

There is not much humour or nudity in the film but it's definitely an adult film with consequences for actions taken, it also works as a story much better than the film adaptation of One day did.

Overall 8/10 highly recommended.

This is a drama about two people who have a chance meeting on a train. Both are with other people and seemingly happy but the attraction between them is too strong to resist. It follows their relationship from the platonic to the inevitable fallout from the decisions they take.

In other hands this could have been a corny and cheesy mess however a brilliant cast and good direction means this is nothing but a success. It moves along at a good pace and never gets boring. I also liked the fact that it didn't paint the adulterers as awful people just normal people in a difficult situation.

The main cast are all top rate actors and they don't disappoint. David Morrissey is great as the guilty husband, the fantastic Sheridan Smith is beguiling as the younger woman and Olivia Colman superb as the spurned wife.

The 7.39 is a very good drama and well worth watching.

A British television movie, splits into two parts of each 60 minutes long. From the writer of 'One Day' who once again wrote a beautiful screenplay. Portrayal of the romantic drama from the perspective of the middle-aged people. Indeed, specially made movie for them, it explores the midlife crises in the marriage and spiritless mechanical life that follows the day after the day. Now, you guys have to switch your mind to google map mode: The story told between the two points of life's map, one is where the home and the family is, dot, and the other one is an office and the job, dot. To describe it mathematically, between these points there comes a line which is practically a boring journey.

The majority won't enjoy leaving home for the work, especially on the Monday morning. The bad day begins with shouting for someone who come across your car front, or fight for a seat in the train and bus. The same way this story appear to have a life where two odd people meet. Carl married with two children and Sally engaged to marry soon. So the days follow everything changes and the journey turns more cheerful than ever. Their little friendship ends in flirtation, but well realising they won't accept the truth. Can they remain good friends, or ready to face the consequences and how their families affect by this is the rest of the riddle.

It just seems... Futile.

After seeing the first quarter of the movie, it reminded me James Siegel's 'Derailed'. I thought I was an inch closer to predict the second part, but the story was smartly moved to the other way. An interesting story development followed further going towards the end of the first half. In the second part, everything slowdowns, but still gripping because it was a crucial stage in the storytelling to solve the puzzle that created in the earlier. Not an over melodramatic or the sexual exploration, but the point is very clear to give us a fair bit amount of everything with the realistic outlook as much possible.

With the sense of awareness of our responsibility in life we know that cheating in a marriage is morally wrong, but it depends what type of life we're leading. There's nothing specialty in this film compared to other movies of the same theme, but the portrayal makes the poetic rendering. Maybe the actors were too good with the excellent chemistry. Yep, you can't just keep silent, these guys filled the souls to their characters, certainly appreciation follows after a watch. While a watch, all my thinking was on the end part, how it's going to happen. A simple and usual, but definitely a very good solution, highly satisfying, makes the overall movie is the best piece of carving. Simply wondered how this movie can't fit to be a silver- screen product.

8/10

How many ways are there to depict infidelity, on screen or on the page? Or romantic love, for that matter? Sometimes it seems that all possible shades of both have been covered, and repeated ad nauseum. Then there comes something like 'The 7.39', and one realizes the same old story can indeed be told in yet another way, which is both entertaining and insightful.

Two commuters - 'everyman' and 'everywoman' - are attracted to each other; the first part focuses on them and the tension is built up really effectively. The second part takes us through the repercussions of their actions, not in a moralistic way, but in a way that one feels sympathy for ALL the characters.

The resolution is unexpected -- I couldn't predict till the last minute how it was all going to end. To take a theme/plot that has been told a million times before, and then to tell in a way that the viewer holds her breath, eagerly anticipating the next turn in the course of events: that's the art of storytelling at its best. This has been compared to the great film 'Brief Encounter'; both deal with the very human theme of temptation, but I think 'The 7.39' also tells us something about the dilemma of the modern man/woman: is life any less complicated when the rules are relaxed?