Why I Liked... Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)

(Dir. Anthony Minghella Starring: Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman)

Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman are magical, magical beings.

Minghella wrote the script with Stevenson in mind, and it shows, because she just glows...

This is the story of Nina (Stevenson) who grieves for her dead boyfriend Jamie (Rickman with a ‘stache) with great difficulty. It’s been a long, terrible process, and when it seems as if her life can’t fall apart any more than it already has, Jamie comes back to her.

...not in the form of a cello, you'll be relieved to know.

Yes, he’s still dead. But he’s there anyway.

I guess what I love about this gem of a film is how brutally honest it is with regards to their relationship. At first when Jamie comes back it’s magic and Nina couldn’t have hoped for anything better. She got her companion back, her lover, her friend. But with Jamie comes what issues they had previously had in their relationship. Her taste in decorating, his domineering personality...not even death can make your loved ones perfect.

I’ve read that Truly, Madly, Deeply has been called the British version of Ghost. Which is a complete and utter lie. Ghost contains that melancholy, somber mood throughout the film, leading up to that infamous pottery scene between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. Truly, Madly, Deeply is pretty much the exact opposite. Both contain similarities in women being betrayed by death, but while Moore’s character gets an iconic, erotic pottery scene, Nina comes to grips with how the people you love aren’t perfect, even in memory.

Sometimes you just want to kill th-oh, spoiler!

While Nina has Jamie’s help to move on with her life, to keep on living without him, we see Jamie set up his own heart break, coming to the realisation that Nina has a future, but without him in the picture.

All this sounds terribly depressing, I know, but instead of wallowing in the depths of death, this film instead captures and dances in the joys of life and love. While at the same time, of course, bringing us back to reality where not everything is beautiful and sunshine and lovely.

I’m not normally going to include a clip of films I review, but I felt that, without spoiling anything, the following perfectly encapsulates what Truly, Madly, Deeply is about. The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore (sung by multiple artists I’m not going to name) is one of those songs that you find yourself dancing to in a happy way until you realise what exactly the lyrics are.

This film will make you want to dance into the arms of your loved one, but when those credits roll by you’ll pause.