This one of the most memorable and touching movies about love and loss that I have ever seen. It does fall a little into the trite towards the end with some of the side plots, but the essential message is there from beginning to end. There are people who you love who leave deep and indelible pieces in you, but the essence of living is painful and individual.
The characters are well drawn and the performances by Rickman and Stevenson are nothing short of inspired. Rickman in particular has an ambivalent character- he has the attraction of a unique and fleeting genius, juxtaposed with the temperamental flightiness of a hot house flower. Stevenson's dealings with this paradox of a person and her relationship, forms the driving force behind her quest for meaning.
There are moments of humor and extreme poignancy in this movie. The use of Bach and the poetry of Pablo Neruda is both organic and brilliant.
The trite parts are largely collateral. The movie rather than being "PC" is idiosyncratic with unusual characters.
Truly Madly Deeply
1990
Action / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy / Music / Romance
Truly Madly Deeply
1990
Action / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy / Music / Romance
Plot summary
Nina is totally heartbroken at the death of her boyfriend Jamie, but is even more unprepared for his return as a ghost. At first it's almost as good as it used to be – hey, even the rats that infested her house have disappeared. But Jamie starts bringing ghostly friends home and behaving more and more oddly.
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August 22, 2019 at 08:28 AM
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Unusual and moving movie
Isolation
Anthony Minghella's beautifully conceptualized debut demonstrates the isolating effects of grief and the regenerative powers of romantic fulfillment as a means of transcending from within the drudgery of life's repressive routine.
In an early scene we see Nina, whose lover died an indeterminate period of time ago, sobbing inconsolably, trying to explain the bottomless grief she's feeling to her vaguely incompetent psychiatrist. Her face fills the frame, her features twisted, moisture heavy on her skin. The camera remains unwaveringly fixed on her throughout this harrowing outburst, never cutting away to offer reliefshe's physically and emotionally isolated, her grief abstracted.
Such a scene is emblematic of Minghella's strategy in these first several reels. We are provided small hints of the tragedy from concerned acquaintances, but the lack of prosaic flashbacks, of the kind of visual inserts that conventionally accord shorthand empathy, similarly isolates us from her longing, leaving us wholly dependent upon Juliet Stevenson to convey the depths of Nina's despair. In order for this conceptual risk to pay off, an inordinate trust is required between director, audience and especially performer, and Stevenson is equal to the task. It's a commanding performance in which all character-building affectation is forsaken for a series of moments in which she is starkly present, dictating the pace, making us captive to her every move. In this manner, the film ceases to be an artifact of self-fulfillment on which we write the rules, but becomes a living thing that dictates the rules to us.
From this place of disconnection arrives a providential revelation, which I will not reveal, that changes the context of our identification with Nina and extends to her the promise of fulfillment. Between these two extreme stateslonging and jubilationcan be found the heart of the story and a gloriously multi-toned narrative, a colorful gallery of nuanced eccentrics, and a perfect, heartbreaking ending.
The Thinking Person's "Ghost"
Writer-director Anthony Minghella is best known for rather large-budget literary film adaptations such as "The English Patient," (which garnered the Best Director Oscar) and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." That is all the more reason to check out his first effort behind the camera. Originally produced for BBC television, "Truly Madly Deeply" genuinely demonstrates Minghella's meticulous touch with character relationships.
Juliet Stevenson is Nina, a translator who hasn't quite gotten over the untimely death of her cellist husband Jamie, played by Alan Rickman (who have an exquisitely natural rapport). Nina hears his voice at night -- but then he begins to appear during the day, as well. Soon, Jamie is around all the time, and, while comforting for Nina, her euphoria soon wears off, once she realizes that he is, in fact, truly gone.
Minghella distinguishes this "otherworldly" situation intellectually. While films such as "Ghost" appeal to the masses with its sappy sentimentalism, this film addresses the reality of the situation. From Nina's withdrawal after one of the most gut-wrenching grieving scenes ever at her therapist's office, to Jamie's "reappearance" and the prospect of living with a ghost and the socio-economic relevance of Latin American immigrants in London the film is far more realistic than any of its kind. Juliet Stevenson's intelligent, vulnerable performance is quite powerful and Alan Rickman's divine rendering of the cello-playing ghost, Jamie are simply unparalleled. Anyone who has lost a love to an untimely death will surely relate to this film.
The addition of Jamie's various new ghost pals is a delightful comic relief and the new love interest character is a useful metaphor that guides her on the journey of letting go of the past and onto the future, which, when you think about it, is actually very profound. It is Minghella's skillful rendering of this material with all of its nuances, that, while fanciful, does not seem contrived, and differentiates it as a one of a kind film of its type.