Movies - Enduring Love

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	Movies - Enduring Love

Enduring Love is a 2004 British movie directed by Roger Michell. Based on Ian McEwan's best-selling novel of the same name, and adapted for the big screen by Joe Penhall, the movie is a story of love, faith and suspense, and how life can change in an instant. The story is about two strangers who become dangerously close after witnessing a deadly accident.

Plot

On a beautiful cloudless day, a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe Rose (played by Daniel Craig) and his girlfriend Clarissa (Samantha Morton) are about to open a bottle of champagne when a cry interrupts them. A hot-air balloon with a child in the basket and an adult being dragged behind it has been ripped from its moorings. Joe immediately joins in with an effort to bring the balloon to safety, but in the ensuing rescue attempt a man is killed.

Witness to this tragic accident is bystander Jed Parry (Rhys Ifans). Joe and Jed exchange a passing glance, a glance which carries devastating consequences and which indelibly burns an obsession into Jed's soul, for Jed suffers from de Clerambault's syndrome, a disorder which makes the sufferer believe that another person (Joe) is in love with them. Delusional and dangerous, Jed's fixation gradually uproots Joe's life; testing the limits of his beloved rationalism, threatening the love of Clarissa and driving him to the brink of murder and madness.

During a lunch out with Clarissa and her godfather, Joe witnesses a shooting on another man. However, he realises that the bullet was meant for him and that the similar composition of characters on the other table misled the killers into thinking the other man was the target. Before the hitman can deliver the fatal blow, Jed, orchestrator of the event and until then, a witness, intervenes to save the innocent man's life before fleeing from the scene of the incident. In the subsequent interrogation, Joe insists that it was Jed who was behind this but the detective does not believe him, possibly because he appears to get many of the facts of the incident incorrect, and therefore does not take measures against Jed. He leaves dissatisfied, knowing that Jed is still out there and looking for him.

Fearing for his safety, he purchases a gun through a long-time acquaintance. On the journey home, he receives a call from Jed - he is at his place sitting with Clarissa. Upon arriving at his apartment, Joe sees Jed sitting on the sofa with Clarissa. Jed then asks for Joe's forgiveness, before take out a knife and pointing it to his own neck. Joe eventually shoots him and escapes without charges.

Tagline: An extraordinary event brought them together. A deadly obsession will tear them apart.

Differences between the novel and the film

The film and the book differ a great deal, the most obvious change being the renaming of Joe's love interest, Clarissa Mellon, to Claire, and the change in her position from common-law wife to girlfriend. The character is now a sculptor instead of the Keats scholar she was in the novel. Joe's profession has also changed from science writer to school teacher, and Jed Parry is no longer living a life of comfort on his inherited wealth.

However, these are not the most significant changes.

Several key scenes from the novel do not appear in the film, and in their place are new scenes devised by the screenwriter.

The stalking of Joe is quite a mystery in the novel - it is not clear at first whether or not it is simply within Joe's mind, as the reader understands that Joe is still in shock from the balloon accident. In the film the stalking is portrayed as obvious reality throughout.

Joe is driven to the boundaries of his sanity in the novel through the many insane and clingy letters posted by Jed, which help the reader to understand Jed's state of mind. These are not included in the film.

There is a scene in the novel where Jed arranges for Joe to be shot whilst celebrating Clarissa's birthday at a restaurant. The wrong man is shot by the hit-men; this is the point in the novel where Joe grasps Jed's violent potential. This scene is not included in the film; it instead appears in the film that Joe is the violent character, appearing in Jed's flat with a baseball bat.

In the climatic scene of the novel, Jed does not stab Clarissa or share a kiss with Joe. Jed instead moves from threatening Clarissa with a knife to slitting his own throat, which is only stopped by Joe shooting him in the elbow with the gun he had obtained earlier in the novel.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Enduring Love ]

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