La Dernière Lettre de son amant

I wish I had watched this before reading the book because I think I could have really enjoyed it more. I LOVED the book...devoured it in two days...so it was tough to see it essentially butchered by the movie. I will say that the movie ending gave me the goosebumps that I didn't get from the book, so bravo there. I truly think this was a good movie, but I think to really appreciate it, wait to read the book.

It's 1965 London. Jennifer Stirling (Shailene Woodley) returns home to her husband Laurence (Joe Alwyn) after a stay in the hospital. They're wealthy from the stuffy upper crust of society. It's a loveless and childless marriage. He's controlling and she's pining for escape. The couple goes on vacation. Reporter Anthony O'Hare (Callum Turner) arrives to interview Laurence. In modern day London, Ellie Haworth (Felicity Jones) is a dissatisfied single gal. She's been assigned to write a bio for a former editor of her paper. She had recently died and left her archival material with the paper. Ellie finds a mysterious love letter which intrigues her to investigate further.

I like the start. It has good potential although the back and forth in time period always held a danger to the narrative flow. One side or the other could falter and stall the entire movie. To me, the emotional high point is the dinner early in the movie. This is a movie about Jennifer seeking independence from Laurence more than about a love story between Jennifer and Anthony. On top of that, they do the Love Affair turn going to meet on top of the Empire State Building. I'm disappointed that they're doing this old trope. Quite frankly, I'd rather have him die and she has to find independence by herself. The other side has a smaller issue for me. I want Rory to be more. They try to do the combative meet-cute between Ellie and Rory but he doesn't hold up his side of the bargain. He's too weak to fight back. This is an old style romance and there is nothing wrong with that. It's simply not anything more than passable.

So good to see a feel good ol hollywood romantic drama after such a long time. They don't make these kinda movies any more for theatres and the ones they make for streaming are usually bad and they look and feel like a TV movie. But this one doesn't, this looks like it was made for big screen and it had all the charm the feel that these movies used to give us 15 years ago.

Not much to say about the story. Its slow but intriguing. Shailene Woodley is wonderful on screen and felicity jones is a delight.

I personally enjoyed it. The movie was interesting and thoughtful. Would recommend for someone who likes romantic films.

As always, the book is by far better than the movie. The casting felt off, chemistry between actors wrong, and the changes made to accommodate a movie version were unfortunate. Overall, without the book it's a fine movie...I'd say skip the movie, read the book!