I liked this movie very much, and it was especially nice to watch it in Christmas time, as it showed New York in lavish Christmas decorations. Complete with the famous skating rink and all! :-) I also liked that although the ending was very foreseeable, this is Hollywood after all, this was not evident until - well, the ending! This movie is rather like "Brief Encounter" from the 1940:s. The same story about two people, already married, meeting by chance at a train/train station, and falling in love against their will. Also: in both movies, the couple get a chance to have sex, but they never do it. By the way, I find the fact that they do NOT have sex much more romantic than if they had. It shows that we have to do with basically decent people caught up in an unhappy situation - and because of this it is easier to sympathize with them."Brief encounter" ended unhappily though. Although the men in both movies got a job far away and moved, to put an end to the hopeless relation-that-must-not-be, in the old movie he never came back and - we must presume - the lovers never met again. I suppose everything else would have been impossible in the 1940:s, but in the 1980:s divorce was not such a bad thing anymore, and the movie-makers could allow the illicit couple to get together in the end.I suppose this kind of story is many bored, married women's fantasy... You are bored with your husband, but there are no "real" problems that would make it "legitimate" to leave him. Also - where would you go, what would you do..? Maybe you would just turn up lonely, unhappy and poor.Although you are in mature age, you have still not quite forgotten that dream about the prince on the white horse, who are coming to save you... maybe this is still not too late, although you are 35, 40, 45, 50..? But you do not want to go out and look for a new man deliberately, because that would be too cheap and trashy. And you would not want a man who was willing to do that to HIS spouse either - because a man like that would not be worth the degree of love and passion you dream of. Therefore you want it to happen as in these movies (and many more like them): by chance, against your conscious will - so that you can continue to look upon yourself - and him - as the decent people in the movies...

I've just seen FALLING IN LOVE for the first time and loved it. Meryl and Robert made a great team. So many memorable scenes - Molly in bed ,flicking through the pages of a magazine while pouring her heart very quietly to her friend, declaring her love for Frank and how she thinks about him all the time. I also love the scene where Molly speeds to Frank's house in the pouring rain and nearly has an accident at the train crossing. I thought Frank's explanation to his friend at the end was rushed. Are the boys now staying with him permanently? So poignant when Molly and Frank meet again in the bookshop and neither can bring themselves to admit they are free.

This pathetic cinematic attempt stole a few ideas from the 1945 black and white classic Brief Encounter, but believe me, this is no Brief Encounter. The only similarities are the trains and the unconsummated affair between two people married to others. The story revolves around two married, fairly affluent suburbanites, Frank and Molly, who meet in a New York bookshop while Christmas shopping, and later encounter each other on a commuter train, first by accident, then (as their mutual attraction grows) by design. Frank has two small boys, and Molly has lost a baby girl a year or two earlier. They then proceed very ploddingly and boringly to fall in love.The movie does get off to a promising start, with the festive, bustling New York Christmas atmosphere. I had great expectations, considering these two stars. Neither Robert DeNiro nor Meryl Streep should have stooped to the level of this dull drivel, though they probably did the best they could with what they have here...a plodding plot, unsympathetic characters, and the poorest dialogue in cinematic history.The screenplay has not a single original phrase and could have been written by a middle school student. There is a fair bit of mindless profanity of the 'O, my G--' type, always easy to write. I note that at least one famous critic lamented the poor script, so I am not alone. Poor Molly literally can't get through an entire sentence without stumbling and stammering. I had enough of this verbal bumbling about after 15 minutes, and after two hours was practically frothing at the mouth. If the point is that forbidden attraction is making Molly tongue tied like a schoolgirl, that might work for the first couple of encounters but not indefinitely.The pair seem juvenile and absurd when trying to physically groom to attract the other. When Frank asks his friend whether he's good looking, I could hardly keep from laughing. Molly fares little better while trying on a number of outfits to determine which will prove most attractive for her new man. Also, they both come off as immature teenagers chit chatting to their best friends about their new love interests. This fails miserably as an endearing indication that they feel young and fresh, falling in love like a couple of school kids. My sympathies lie with the harmless and hapless spouses. These marriages may not be that exciting but don't seem troubled, making sympathy unlikely for these would be adulterers. Molly's husband, Brian, is a quiet physician, occasionally off in his own world dealing with the distressing patient losses he must face in his career. However, he's very kind and supportive of his wife when she has her hysterical tizzy fit at her father's grave side, caused by anguish over the affair rather than grief for her dad. Who can blame him when he lies on the phone to Frank in the hopes of discouraging the lover? Frank's wife, Ann, is a pretty and apparently loving brunette, a wholesome gardening type and devoted mother. I felt like slapping Frank virtually throughout the movie. Happily, Ann DOES slap him across the face when she realizes his love for another! No, Frank & Molly do not have sex but the affair is just too dreary for it to make any difference. The pair do make it to the bed, but Molly puts the brakes on. Now if FRANK had put the brakes on, that might have been a bit more original.These two characters are neither interesting nor sympathetic. Affairs are only of interest when guilt is present, some sense of inner conflict to add interest to the character. Sadly, there is little guilt here other than a smidgen in Molly. Frank indicates no regard at all for either his wife or his two charming young sons. Worst of all, we have the uninspiring message that it's just dandy to break up two homes (one with children) as a result of being attracted to someone else. The pair get together in the end, the spouses conveniently gotten out of the picture in predictable, uninteresting ways. Ann goes home to her mother, and Molly apparently leaves Brian (or vice versa). Really, difficult as it is to believe with these two talented actors, this movie has little to recommend it. It's not a case of adultery but sheer unadulterated boredom.Instead of this disgusting drivel, treat yourself to Brief Encounter, the genuine article and a true classic.

Absolutely brilliant acting on the part of the main protagonists, Streep and de Niro. I don't believe for one single moment you can find love by taking the train - I have been travelling daily for years on public transport and have never encountered anything remotely resembling what happens in the film - but films ARE made to make us dream and this film certainly does. Why, pray, if you want daily reality, then you watch a documentary.These two characters and the actors that portray them are ideally suited to the script and film. They're both pretty reserved, shy and respect the contract of marriage, but something inexorably brings them together. You watch, thinking "this cannot last" but somehow it does. One or other of the characters takes the right initiative at the right moment. Truly unbelievable when you look at stark reality but oh boy is it fun to watch on the screen.The same story played out by ordinary actors would be a total flop, but with Streep and De Niro, success is guaranteed right the way thru ! A must for all those who have never found true love but secretly harbour the hope of finding it one day .....................