Every once in a while, you read or hear or see something that seems to penetrate so deeply into my personal psyche that it is frightening. On a recent flight from New York to London, I had a choice between a billion films (go British Airways!), including a series that was curated by Cate Blanchett. The film she had chosen for my flight was Brief Encounter, a British film from David Lean, made in 1946. Apparently it is a classic of British cinema, but I had never heard of it. The script is by Noel Coward.

I went on to IMDB and apparently, my "discovery" has already been made by cinephiles everywhere. Oh, well. Original or not, I still must advise all to see this movie--film noir setting in which a married housewife meets a married doctor at the train station and they have an "affair." A lot of people on IMDB claim that the plot line is dated, as taboos about adultery and divorce have been destroyed in the past 50 years. But for me, both the moral and emotional content of the film seem perfectly applicable to contemporary life. Or at least to mine.

I don't want to spoil the film for anyone, so my discussion has to be a little generic and cryptic. But here's a solution. Order the film from NetFlix (and if you live in the US and aren't a member of NetFlix, you should be), watch it, and get back to me. I promise you won't regret it.