Truly Madly Deeply

Dir: Anthony Minghella

1990

*****

Anthony Minghella is probably best remembered for his 1996 multi-Oscar winning The English Patient and after that the brilliant The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. Three brilliant films. However, in my humble opinion, his 1990 feature debut Truly Madly Deeply is his greatest moment. The simplicity and tenderness of the story is without comparison. Juliet Stevenson plays Nina, a recently bereft widow who finds life without her partner hard to get through. All of a sudden, her dead partner Jamie (played by Alan Rickman) returns to her as a ghost and the two carry on life where they left off. However, Jamie soon begins to tarnish their relationship by playing his music loud, moving furniture around their apartment and inviting his ghost friends round to watch films. After a few weeks pass, Nina realizes that she has feelings for a young psychologist called Mark and slowly drifts away from Jamie but not before the film's beautiful twist ending. It's about as heart-breaking and heart-warming as a film could possibly be, not in a melancholic way, although there is bit of that, but what it really does show is the lengths of sacrifice, generosity and strength that come from true love while also challenging the notion of idolization and idealism and the hazy fantasy that comes from nostalgia, memory and longing. It's also a brilliant piece on loneliness, as we're never really sure whether Jamie is a real ghost or if he is part of Nina's imagination. Minghella once stated that he wrote the script simply as a showcase for Juliet Stevenson's talent and range ability, which is very clear and impressive throughout. It is probably her best performance and it is certainly one of my favourite Alan Rickman films. It makes me cry every time I watch it but I keep on rewatching it. Overshadowed by the other big ghost movie that was released the same year, Ghost was a rather sickly-sweet and complicated attempt at showing a rather fantastical version of the same story more or less (without the murder and clairvoyants) when Truly Madly Deeply simply wore its heart on its sleeve, took an altogether realistic look at life, love and death and produced the most humble of masterpieces. A most modest modern classic.