Truly Madly Deeply

If I'm ever forced to compile a list of my all time favourite top five movies, it will vary from week to week – maybe even day to day – and certainly depend upon my current mood and degree of cynicism. But I'm absolutely certain that Truly Madly Deeply will always be in there. I simply love this film. (And hate the version that Hollywood made of it, Ghost.) I watched it again recently, and it was like visiting an old friend. I must have seen this film 10 times yet I seem to be able to glean something extra from it every time. To me, that is the mark of a real work of art, to be able to revisit it and find something new; to still be moved even though the work is familiar.

Truly Madly Deeply stars two of my favourite actors, Juliet Stevenson (Nina) and Alan Rickman (Jamie), and is touching and bittersweet without ever being mawkish. They were a well-matched couple, in love, and he died suddenly, leaving her utterly bereft, almost unable to comprehend what has happened. Overwhelmed by grief, she cannot get a grip, until Jamie comes back from the dead to comfort her. The performances are truly stunning, especially Stevenson. I challenge anyone not to be utterly riveted by her scene in the therapist's office, where we see her anger at Jamie, her dead lover, for dying. She draws the viewer into her misery and desolation in a way that is rarely achieved on screen.

But it's also a funny movie, touching and life affirming. We see the little, silly, personal details and games that make up a love affair; the stupid stuff that makes it real; trying to out-do each other in expression of their affection ("I love you truly", "I love you truly, madly", "I love you truly, madly, deeply", etc as they watch the clouds go by), we see Nina clinging to the remnants of the life she had with Jamie, the appalling rat infested flat, the cello. It takes Jamie's return from the dead for her to start seeing that it wasn't always perfect, and life without Jamie might be possible. Finally she starts to move on, and we know she is going to be OK. In the meantime Jamie is freezing cold (after all, he is a ghost) and turns the flat into a sauna, and his dead friends – who are all movie buffs – are watching videos in the living room in their bathrobes.

Of course the story is a bit hokey, but this is very much a performance driven movie. I watched this film again not long before I went to see Look Both Ways, a much more recent Australian movie about death and dying. Neither has much in the way of plot or action, but both are perfect examples of how even the old clichés and truisms of life can be made fresh and true by intelligent writing and the sheer veracity of the performances. They are both a tour de force in acting. Watch them both.

A man who comes back as a ghost to assist his grieving wife... it could have been really cheesy, but Rickman and Stevenson pull it off! I loved this movie and I'm not normally into romantic comedies. The comedy is subtle and doesn't dominate the movie. If you're looking for a happy-go-lucky, laugh a minute movie, look elsewhere. Stevenson's tears and grief are very realistic and you truly feel her desperation. Yet, though there is sadness and even the ending is bitter-sweet, you don't leave feeling depressed and there ARE laughs along the way. Rickman and Stevenson's singing scene is tremendous and a must see for all Rickman fans! It is strange to call a movie about a ghost "realistic", but it is. The relationship between the two leads is very realistic and the chemistry is incredible. All in all a charming little flick to watch when you feel like cuddling up and watching a good love story.

This is a beautiful little movie. Juliet Stevenson (as Nina) plays one of the most authentic female leads I've ever seen: She bawls full-out, complete with fluids; she looks like a man in bad lighting; she's passive aggressive and irritable and loveable and likeable and real. Likewise, Alan Rickman's character, Jamie, is peevish, like all of us, self-centered, like all of us, but beautiful and unique and again, real. Unlike the schmaltz we're fed here in the states, where dialogue consists of rehearsed speeches (think Jerry Maguire) and love seems skin-deep, this is a couple that seems not only to love each other but to genuinely like each other; a couple that has their own language, as long-term couples do (and it's not translated, which is so refreshing), a couple that can be silly with each other and irritated with each other within minutes; that can have spats that are not high drama or the beginning of the end or anything other than the end of a long day in a too-hot apartment. The ending broke my heart yet seemed like the most natural and right course of action. Truly stunning.

A nice look at what it means to lose someone, and to be the lost as well. All too often (as in the treacly "Ghost") we are treated to a fantasy version of love and loss, where you get to have your cake (looking fab in that graveside outfit) and eat it too (dead person is wonderfully available as he guides you to your next, even better for you, love). Here, we see a woman who cannot let go, who is so paralyzed with grief she cannot live the life left to her. The man she lost untimely loves her so dearly he returns, not to take up where they left off (which is all she asks), but to guide her back into life, life he can never have again. What makes this movie admirable is the deft and sensitive rendering of the act of letting go, from both the point of view of the lost and the living.

Having spent some time in the States, I got to watch the brilliant review programme starring Siskel and Ebert (rest in peace, Gene). I've now got a rather dated copy of Ebert's book, and his review of this film matches my opinions perfectly.

Comparisons of this film and Ghost are fatuous, since the similarities are only superficial. Yes, the main protagonists are a couple where the man dies and returns as a ghost, but that's about it. Truly, madly, deeply is wonderfully involving - it has that indefinable something that makes you care about the characters, and pray that the film makers won't cop out and go for a stupid ending.

Fear not, they remain true to the rest of the film. If you only know Alan Rickman from his 'baddie' roles in films like Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, this will come as a complete surprise. He plays the recently departed Jamie, who must hang around as a ghost until Nina (Juliet Stevenson) finds happiness. The film is slow-paced, but that doesn't matter - it's a wonderful character study.

Of course, it's helped by having Nina played by the utterly wonderful Juliet Stevenson. In the early scenes, when she's grieving for Jamie, her pain is almost palpable. Forget Demi Moore-style teary-eyed, looking ever more beautiful grieving - this is the real thing, floods of tears, almost incoherent, looking like crap, snot-nosed AGONY. The transformation when she realises that Jamie is still around is a joy to watch - as is most of the film, actually.

'Ghost' for adults? In a way, but I think it's comparing apples and oranges. It's a masterful character study, with a great script and a cast on top of their form. Well worth watching.