raygirvan-86231 Review of Enduring Love

Enduring Love (2004)

Deeply irritating through unfeasible motivations

[3/10 · 12 March 2015]

I don't suppose it's a spoiler to say that the main character acquires a stalker; this is the crucial point of the film, and of my impressions of it. The scenario is interesting: the explosion of consequences on a group of dysfunctional Londoners' lives after their involvement in a ballooning accident. But the development of the plot depends on continually unfeasible choices of actions. Nobody seems to have heard of stalker fans. Nobody except the immediate victim, Joe, seems much bothered about it, or even inclined to believe Joe about it. Joe takes none of the obvious steps for dealing with the situation - asking shop staff to remove the person pestering him, solicitor, police, restraining order - or even the dramatically likely outcome of thumping the guy and letting the situation come out in court. The film would probably make sense in a universe where a stalker was an unheard-of phenomenon. But on Planet Earth, it just doesn't work.