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 !!!

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

David Nicholls' reworking of the David Lean classic shifts the action from wartime Carnforth to contemporary London. Carl Matthews (David Morrissey) and Sally Thorn (Sheridan Smith) have a chance meeting, see each other on a regular basis on the 7.39 morning train from an unspecified suburb to the center of London, and fall in love. Unlike Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in the earlier film, their love is not restricted to clandestine meetings in a station canteen, but develops into a full-blown affair. Nonetheless the outcome is much the same, as they realize that there is no future for either of them. The story is a familiar one, set against the backdrop of contemporary London - a teeming, high-tech city that alienates many of its citizens. John Alexander's direction vividly captures the heartlessness of contemporary urban life, with shots of a crowded train whose passengers seldom, if ever talk to one another, and interior shots of Carl's office, where the employees are separated from one another by glass screens. No one, it seems, has the time or the inclination to relate to one another. Thus it is perhaps inevitable that Carl and Sally should try to seek an alternative through love. Shot mainly in a series of shot/reverse shot sequences, THE 7.39 is an intense drama focusing on the characters' unspoken feelings: a close-up of Sally's tortured expression as she leaves Carl for the last time tells us far more about her pent-up emotions than dialog ever can. The casting is highly effective: Morrissey towers over Smith, suggesting that the couple are both physiognomically as well as emotionally ill-matched. Nonetheless they take full advantage of the affair while it lasts.

There is so very little to look forward to on telly these days, but this is just incredible. A host of great people, great characters and a great script. I have read all the typically superfluous comments re. Oh the 7.39 is always so crowded, where is the fat balding bloke etc etc. the 7.39 does not go from West Sussex to paddington. I am a railway enthusiast and even I groaned at that one !! Having been fortunate enough to experience a very intense wonderful affair of this type, this is so realistic, I was spell bound and cannot wait for tonight. The looks, the subtle body language, the doubt, the intense rush it's all there and yes I hope the lust will be there as well. Well it is 2014, even if it's the London commuter belt and all that and the stuffy old south of England !! Well done the BBC for showing this, well done to the actors and actresses a modern day Brief Encounter, fantastic !! More please.

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?