‘Enduring Love’ haunts long after movie’s end

The ads for “Enduring Love” state that the film comes from the director of “Notting Hill.” And that’s true, it does – but don’t expect glamorous stars trading witty banter and falling in love.

Here, Daniel Craig becomes the object of Rhys Ifans’ obsession after the two get dragged into a different kind of accident: a hot-air balloon crash in an idyllic patch of English countryside.

Craig’s Joe and Ifans’ Jed are among a handful of men who try to stop the out-of-control contraption after it lurches to the ground, then takes off again.

From there, Roger Michell and playwright Joe Penhall, who wrote the script, never let up. In adapting Ian McEwan’s novel “Enduring Love,” they’ve molded a riveting psychological thriller in which most of the thrills come from not understanding exactly what’s thrilling you.

When scruffy, scraggly haired Jed calls Joe, a professor, at home to talk about the accident, it seems at first that he needs the catharsis after such a traumatic experience. Joe agrees because he’s been obsessing, too. But Jed quickly starts making cryptic comments and demanding that Joe open up to him.

Soon he’s following Joe to the bookstore and to lunch and sitting in on his class, insisting that something special passed through them that day.

It’s not clear what he wants, though – whether it’s friendship or love, whether he’s lonely or just envious of Joe’s life – and that’s much of what makes “Enduring Love” so fascinating. Even when the film reaches its startling climax, Jed’s intentions still remain a bit of a mystery.

So don’t let the title fool you – there’s nothing traditionally loving about “Enduring Love,” though it will probably endure in your brain afterward.