Brief Encounter
Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited | Release Date: August 24, 1946 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
92
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
BBCNick Hilditch
David Lean ably directed Noel Coward's script for this intensely passionate film in which almost nothing happens. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
The film is thrillingly, unapologetically about decency and honour, about, as Laura heartrendingly puts it, controlling oneself. Read full review
100
Time OutTom Huddleston
David Lean's wondrous romance, adapted from Noel Coward's story, is one of the most emotionally devastating movies of all time. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Encounter remains the definition of timeless, a beautifully shot, heartbreakingly acted, minutely detailed illustration of thoroughly recognizable human frailty. Read full review
100
IndieWireVikram Murthi
David Lean’s Brief Encounter captures love at its most ephemeral. Read full review
100
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
Shockingly modern in sensibility, construction, and execution, Brief Encounter is very different from what one thinks of as a David Lean movie, whose historical epics have come to define posh, mid-century, cinematic excellence. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
A touching, exquisitely handled film dealing with two ordinary people who accidentally fall in love. Read full review
100
The TelegraphJenny McCartney
A romance that stays memorable precisely because it couldn't go anywhere. Celia Johnson plays the married woman who meets Trevor Howard in a train station and falls in love; David Lean directs with forceful restraint. [24 Jun 2013]
100
Chicago TribuneMaureen M. Hart
Noel Coward's much-loved thwarted romance. [14 Nov 2008, p.C7]
91
Entertainment WeeklySteve Simels
Director David Lean’s magnificent rendering of the short, passionate, and unconsummated affair between two middle-class, middle-aged Brits remains the most memorable treatment of extramarital romance in movie history. Read full review
90
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
An uncommonly good little picture. Read full review
80
CineVueAllie Gemmill
We rarely see films that are so loaded in meaning and symbolism yet subdued in action. It’s a treat to be sure, one that can be relished seventy years on with renewed fervour. Read full review
80
The New YorkerPauline Kael
A celebrated, craftsmanlike tearjerker, and incredibly neat.
80
EmpireCaroline Westbrook
Beautifully monochrome rendering of a love that cannot be. Read full review
80
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Based on his playlet, Still Life from Tonight at 8.30, Brief Encounter does more for Noel Coward's reputation as a skilled film producer than In Which We Serve. His use of express trains thundering through a village station coupled with frantic, last-minute dashes for local trains is only one of the clever touches masking the inherent static quality of the drama. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderDon Druker
Survives more as a social document than a genuinely compelling drama. Read full review
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