This post is being published on Valentine’s Day, 2024. Because of the fact that you will be reading this on February 14th, I had felt a certain pressure during my planning process to come up with something that seemed extra romantic. There is no shortage of romance movies out there today to choose from. I could have had my pick of almost any Hallmark movie (which are this generation’s version of the old Harlequin romance paperback books). Those movies all have fairly similar plotlines and all tend to end with the couple finding lasting love and living happily ever after. Nothing wrong with any of that. We have watched numerous Hallmark movies over the years in my home. My daughters watch these films with visions of romantic encounters with handsome kilted men or rugged hockey players dancing in their minds. My wife watches these movies because she loves movies about families and happy endings and love. Like I said, there is nothing wrong with a film that delivers the message that love is the most important thing of all in life. However, if you know anything about me at all from reading these posts, you will know that I am not a formula-driven movie fan. Some may like the comfort of watching a predictable plot unfold. But for me, I prefer to be amazed and surprised and taken to places I was not expecting to go. Thus, when it came time to choose what film to honour on this Valentine’s Day post, I opted for a tiny gem of a movie from England called Truly, Madly, Deeply. This movie stars Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson. It is easily one of the most touching movies I have ever seen. When it comes to how it demonstrates the nature of love between Rickman and Stevenson, Truly, Madly, Deeply does so in a way that reminds me of how the relationship I have with my wife feels and works. This movie is no fairy tale romance. It is loving and very real. There are no spies or fancy castles or magic spells. What transpires from the opening credits until the closing credits is a story of finding your soulmate in our everyday world and doing what it takes to make that person feel truly happy and loved and free. As is my policy now, I will leave the trailer for you here. If you wish to watch the movie and haven’t done so yet then stop reading, have a great day, go and watch the movie and then come back to the post when you are ready to read my description of it below. See you all in a bit.
Awwww! So glad to see you again! If you stopped to watch the film, I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you have already watched the movie or don’t intend to, then on with the show. Let’s go!!!
Truly, Madly, Deeply was released in 1990 in the UK. It was directed by Anthony Minghella, who won an Academy Award for directing the movie The English Patient. He has also directed such well known films as The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, The Reader and Michael Clayton. If you know anything about any of these movies, you will come to understand that Mr. Minghella knows how to direct character-driven films well. Truly, Madly, Deeply is nothing if not a character-driven film. The movie won the BAFTA (British Film Awards) award for Best Original Screenplay. Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson were both nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. Alan Rickman has many film credits to his name, such as playing Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film franchise, Hans Gruber in Die Hard (You know the old saying that it is not truly Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off of the Nakatomi Plaza), and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He was in Sense and Sensibility, too, along with a multitude of other roles on stage, in film and on television. Rickman met Juliet Stevenson when they were both students at a school for the Arts called The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. They both graduated from R.A.D.A. in the late 1970s along with a wave of other impressive actors, such as Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce. The role of Nina in Truly, Madly, Deeply was written specifically for Juliet Stevenson by Minghella because he wanted to showcase her talents on the big screen for the first time. Prior to this film, Stevenson had spent most of her career acting as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was a highly-respected stage actor. Director Minghella thought that she deserved to be known by a wider audience, and so he wrote the screenplay with her in mind for the lead role. As it has turned out, while Juliet Stevenson has acted in other films since Truly, Madly, Deeply, it is that film for which she is best known by most people.
The plot of the movie is simple, kinda, sorta. Stevenson plays Nina. She is an interpreter by trade. Nina meets and falls in love with a cellist named Jamie, who is played by Alan Rickman. It is obvious that these two characters love each other completely and are soulmates. Their two separate lives become one and they are deeply happy to be a couple. Then, unexpectedly, Jamie passes away as a result of complications from a routine medical procedure he was undergoing. His sudden loss sends Nina reeling, as one might expect. Everything turns gray for her. She is sad and lonely. Their shared flat seemed impossibly big and empty. The beating of their hearts has been replaced by the incessant ticking of the clock on the wall. Nina wants to stop living but knows that eventually she has to go back to work and get groceries again and clean her clothes and start doing the thousand and one mundane things that we all have to do in order to get by. As she starts to get back to work, Jamie, the dead cellist, suddenly returns…as a ghost!!! He is definitely dead, but Nina can see him and feel him and is thrilled beyond measure to have Jamie back in her life. However, being a ghost, Jamie cannot completely return to the life he used to live, which includes leaving their flat. So Nina goes off to work and Jamie stays at home and awaits her return and the news of her day. As time goes on, Jamie begins to do things in the flat that irritate Nina such as cranking the heat up, rearranging the furniture and inviting ghost friends to come over and watch movies. While all of this is going on, Nina lives in the real world and one day meets a nice man named Mark. Mark has been noticing Nina and believes her to be single and asks her out. Nina is flattered but wracked with guilt because she knows that the ghost of her soulmate awaits her at home. Eventually, all of Jamie’s antics in the flat get on Nina’s nerves and she and he have words. It is at this moment that Nina starts to wonder if the romantic ideal she has in her head for how her life with Jamie was is actually how it was in reality. Maybe her heart is telling her it is time to move on. So, shyly, reluctantly, Nina accepts Mark’s invitation and goes out on a simple date. Jamie and his ghost friends watch her prepare for the date, watch her leave and anxiously await her return. When the date ends up going well, Jamie is sad but he knows that it is the right thing for Nina to do because she is still alive and has a long life ahead of her. There are more dates with Mark. Jamie watches Nina become increasingly happy with him. The movie closes with Jamie and his ghost friends watching them kiss. He has let her go and has done so in a way that allows her to experience happiness again without guilt. It is at this moment that we realize that many of his antics in the flat were designed on purpose to help Nina put their relationship behind her and to see Mark in a better light so she could move forward. As Jamie and the ghost friends watch Nina and Mark kiss and then walk away, arm in arm, you can sense that his little ghost heart is cracking wide open. Sometimes that’s how love works, too. That is why I like Truly, Madly, Deeply so much. It avoids the obvious plot devices and storylines while still arriving at a happily ever after conclusion for one of the characters. It is sad but satisfying, just the same.
Truly, Madly, Deeply is one of those movies that does not have a soundtrack that plays all throughout the film. There are fewer than ten pieces of music used in all. Several of those are excerpts from The Brandenburg Concertos by Bach that are played by Rickman as Jamie. The one song that gets the most obvious attention in the film is a 1960s hit by The Walker Brothers called “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”. It is sung as a duet by Stevenson and Rickman during the scene in which Jamie has returned to their shared flat for the first time while in ghost form. His return and Nina’s euphoric reaction to him set the stage for a raucous rendition of this recognizable tune. In real life, The Walker Brothers were an interesting trio. Like The Ramones who followed in their wake, none of the three men who made up The Walker Brothers were actually named Walker, nor were they even related, let alone brothers. Furthermore, The Walker Brothers were an American singing group that pulled a reverse British Invasion feat by leaving the US and heading to the UK, just as The Beatles and the rest of the Brit bands were invading America. The Walker Brothers had two No.1 hits while in England. The first was called “Make It Easy On Yourself”, which was a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Their second song to make it to the top of the charts was “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”, which is a tune I am sure you will recognize the moment you first hear it. The Walker Brothers did not have much of a career after that. They broke up soon thereafter, reunited a few years later and broke up for good by the mid-1970s, at which time the three singers all pursued solo careers.”The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” was truly their last moment in the musical spotlight.
There are times when the trajectories of life and art merge. Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman had been friends for almost a quarter century when they were cast to play Nina and Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply. The easy affection that they held for each other on screen was made possible due to the very real affection they held for each other in life as well. Stevenson and Rickman were good friends. Good friends, like soulmates, are a treasure and help make our world brighter and safer and more complete. And so, just as it unfolded in the movie, Juliet Stevenson was there when Alan Rickman passed away recently in real life, too. Stevenson, along with a circle of Rickman’s closest friends sat with his wife during those final moments, sharing stories of the times they had shared and the memories of him that they were going to take with them as they moved on with their lives. *(You can read an interview she gave shortly after Rickman passed by clicking here). Letting go is never easy. True love is such an elusive construct that our natural instincts are to grip it tight and hold on forever more until we, ourselves, are free from those mortal coils of our lives. One of the reasons I was so moved by watching Truly, Madly, Deeply was because it showed how it is to free the one you love and allow them to be happy again without you. To me, that’s what love truly means. Sometimes you have let go. It’s one final act of caring.
Happy Valentine’s Day to all who celebrate.
The link to the video for the song “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” by The Walker Brothers from the original Motion Picture Soundtrack for the film Truly, Madly, Deeply can be found here. The scene from Truly, Madly, Deeply is here. ***The lyrics version can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained in this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
You’ve not steered me wrong in the past with movies, I’m going to track this one down. I always enjoy seeing Rickman in anything.
To me The Walker Brothers were always a cheap ripoff of the Righteous Bros. but without their staying power. I may have been a bit prejudiced in that opinion, but such was the person I was at that time.
I have never even heard of Madly Truly Deeply as by the 90s I was not much of a movie watcher anymore. That is not to say there weren’t some great movies, just I had lost interest in sitting in a theatre with bunches of other people who were so entertained with mediocrity (your Harlequin Romance/Hallmark movies for example). I was too often dissppointed by what others told me were great movies. In Vancouver there was a little theatre called the Vogue that played only offbeat edgy movies that I generally loved (though never this movie), but when I moved to Fredericton and later Lethbridge I never found another theatre like the Vogue. Now I live in a small town that doesn’t even have a theatre, so I pay no attention to movies of any kind.
However, the theme of letting go is an important one, not just after a death. Too nany times I have seen people remaining together for what they call love, but seems to me to be a memory of a love they once had but now is gone. They should have moved on, but I guess they had some reason not to.
You are lucky to have a “great love.” Not very many people do.
On this day and all others, I am blessed.
Even though it’s basically crooning and on the lush side, I’ve always liked “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore!”
I agree. I don’t own any version of it but, every now and again, it is a good song to listen to from good speakers. 👍