It's 1965 London. Jennifer Stirling (Shailene Woodley) returns home to her husband Laurence (Joe Alwyn) after a stay in the hospital. They're wealthy from the stuffy upper crust of society. It's a loveless and childless marriage. He's controlling and she's pining for escape. The couple goes on vacation. Reporter Anthony O'Hare (Callum Turner) arrives to interview Laurence. In modern day London, Ellie Haworth (Felicity Jones) is a dissatisfied single gal. She's been assigned to write a bio for a former editor of her paper. She had recently died and left her archival material with the paper. Ellie finds a mysterious love letter which intrigues her to investigate further.
I like the start. It has good potential although the back and forth in time period always held a danger to the narrative flow. One side or the other could falter and stall the entire movie. To me, the emotional high point is the dinner early in the movie. This is a movie about Jennifer seeking independence from Laurence more than about a love story between Jennifer and Anthony. On top of that, they do the Love Affair turn going to meet on top of the Empire State Building. I'm disappointed that they're doing this old trope. Quite frankly, I'd rather have him die and she has to find independence by herself. The other side has a smaller issue for me. I want Rory to be more. They try to do the combative meet-cute between Ellie and Rory but he doesn't hold up his side of the bargain. He's too weak to fight back. This is an old style romance and there is nothing wrong with that. It's simply not anything more than passable.
