84 Charing Crossing Road is a British-American drama film about book-lovers, friendship, and regret. It’s based on a book with the same name as the movie. The book is a compilation of letters between a New York writer and a London book seller, which was very popular in the 20th century.
The story starts with a scene that a lady is taking the plane to London for some “unfinished business” in 1971. The lady, Helene Hanff, is a poor writer with antiquarian taste in books, living in New York. The plot revolves around her memories of an old friend from London who she never met during her lifetime.
It is in 1949. Helene is obsessed with obscure classics and British literature titles, but some of them she wants cann't be found in New York. Longing for collecting out-of-print books, she writes a letter hopelessly to the London bookshop named Marks & Co. Fortunately, one of the staff fulfills her request, tell her that they can provide some attractive books with reasonable price, and they can send them by post. The person is Frank Doel, a topical Englishman with a well-adjusted personality and a marvelous sense of humor. Under his reserved expression, Frank is also a book-lover like Helene. So when he gets those letters which are asking for rare volumes, it seems like a game for chasing those books around the country. He can always get what her wants, so Helene writes to him: “You’re the only soul who understands me.” Their relationship between them is not just like seller and buyer's, or pen-pals'. Although Helene herself is hard up, she buys a lot of food packages from Denmark to England and other necessaries to help her English friends get through the ration, including all the staffs of Marks & Co, and the Doels.
Fate messes with people. Her actress friend gets the opportunity to London, Helene herself, however, can’t visit the bookshop, because an extravagant dental surgery suddenly steals all the money she save for going to London during the coronation of ElizabethⅡ. Doel dies in December 1968, but Helene finally visits 84 Charing Cross Road in the summer of 1971, then she finds out Mark & Co is eventually closed. Standing in the bleak bookshop, Helene realizes she lost her beloved friend forever.
It sounds like a tragic story about regret; actually, it’s perfect for its imperfect. Watching them talking about those old Latin works, John Donne, verses that should be read in the spring and so forth, a feeling of nostalgia for handwritten letters will fill your heart. There is a poem named “Slower Days in the past”, written by a Chinese poet Mu Xin, says: “Days were slower in the past. Carriage, horse, and mail did not reach fast. You need your lifetime to just love the person who is right.” The special era endows it with a subtle beauty. Because they never met, they can keep the mysterious figures of each other in their fantasies. Through those letters, they are not just a poor writer or an unremarkable bookseller, but two carefree souls flying causally by the wings of literature. Better to miss than to meet. Maybe that’s the reason why this story never goes out of style.
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