My Beef with Brief Encounter.

Why are guys such assholes? They weren't always assholes, were they?

Yes, they were. 

For those of you who haven't seen it, Brief Encounter is a b&w film from 1945. Here is the plot summary from IMDB:

"At a café in a railway station, housewife Laura Jesson meets doctor Alec Harvey. Although they are both already married, they gradually fall in love with each other. They continue to meet every Thursday at the small café, although they know that their love is impossible.

Laura Jesson and Dr. Alec Harvey spend each Thursday in Milford - Laura running her shopping errands and catching a movie picture and Alec doing rounds at the hospital - before each boards a train at the end of the afternoon going in the opposite direction to their respective homes. They meet accidentally enough in the Milford Junction refreshment room while waiting for their respective trains when Alec helps Laura remove a piece of coal dust from her eye. Over the course of a few weeks seeing each other only on Thursdays, Laura and Alec fall in love. The problem is that each is already happily married with a family, and neither wants to hurt their own spouse. Laura tries unsuccessfully to avoid meeting up with Alec as her emotional need to see him takes over. They have to decide how to deal with what looks to be a doomed but life long romance with each other, while hiding their encounters from anyone, especially their friends and acquaintances who may see them together in Milford. "

Okay, first of all I just want to say - I do love this movie. I am in no way bashing the film. Both characters are adorable and it didn't take long for me to start rooting for them. But when bitches be walking around train stations preying on other people's husbands... I just can't sit quietly!

While it's all very well finding love when you least expect it and embarking on a whimsical and exciting new journey of love - married folks are a no go! The way they sympathetically portrayed adultery in the film angered me a little...but as I thought more about it, it just made me laugh. If something like that happened in the present day, there would almost definitely be a public shaming on Twitter, a lie-detector test on Jeremy Kyle and ultimately, a double page spread real life story of some jilted lover in Take A Break.

I wonder, if the same sort of attitude was still held today, would there be more or less affairs?

More or less people finding their true love - albeit finding them too late?

Would people have memberships on trains rather than dating websites in a bid to find their suitor?

I know - I'm getting ridiculous. But my point still stands. Cheating = bad, no matter the generation.

Shame on you, classic black and white movie!  

Don't even get me started on An Affair To Remember...

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