If we don’t learn from past mistakes, we’re bound to repeat them. But from the past, we can also learn to let it go and forge ahead, keeping the experiences close yet not letting it overtake our ability to try again, to feel again. If our hearts are going to stop beating, what’s left? In The Last Letter from Your Lover, author Jojo Moyes narrates the story of two women living in different periods who cling to their memories and are too afraid to take a step towards an uncertain future.
Director Augustine Frizzell adapts Jojo Moyes’s novel and pictures it into a melodious romantic drama, The Last Letter from Your Lover. Running in two concurrent timelines, the journey is going to swell your heart and fill your lids with tears.
Plot Summary
The affairs began in 1965 London. An elite industrialist, Laurence Stirling (Joe Alwyn), brings his wife, Jennifer “Jenny” (Shailene Woodley), back home from the hospital after a tragic car accident. The misfortune has taken a toll on Jenny’s memory, who tries hard to recollect her memories of the past.
In contemporary London, a young journalist, Ellie Haworth (Felicity Jones), who works for The London Chronicle, stumbles upon a series of love letters while researching a feature on the paper’s longest-serving women’s editor. These letters suggest a romantic affair between “J” and “Mr. B,” which quickly captivates Ellie’s interest. Ellie, with the help of the archivist, Rory (Nabhaan Rizwan), unravels the mysterious love story.
J in the letters refers to Jennifer “Jenny” Stirling. She meets a young financial journalist, Anthony O’Hare (Callum Turner), who visits the socialite couple to cover a story on Jenny’s husband and successful industrialist, Laurence. Jenny finds an uncanny resemblance between Anthony and a fictional journalist in Evelyn Waugh’s comic novel Scoop. Hence, she calls Anthony Mr. Boot (or B). The two begin a star-crossed affair but aren’t sure how the illicit affair is going to end. Anthony often writes love letters to Jenny, pleading her to leave her marriage of convenience, but she is too afraid to take a tentative step. Will these two lovers ever be able to commence a life of their own?
‘The Last Letter from Your Lover’ Ending Explained
Anthony was going to take a job in New York, and hence he asked Jenny to come along. He wrote to her that he would wait for her on Platform two, Marylebone, Friday at 7:15 pm. At the brink of the moment, Jenny decided to leave London with Anthony. She traveled to the railway station with Anthony’s friend Felipe but met with a road accident. Felipe lost his life. Jenny lost her memory and Anthony… He boarded the train and left.
That was the last letter Ellie found in the archive. To discover the fate or the end of the love story, she wrote a letter to Jenny at her current address in London. Fortunately, she replied but only to reject Ellie’s request and refused any further communication. Through her research, Ellie found out that Anthony worked for The London Chronicle and quickly initiated a conversation with him.
Anthony told Ellie that he last met Jenny on the Christmas of 1969. The two lovers embraced each other, and as usual, Anthony asked Jenny to come with him. Jenny informed him about her young-born daughter, Esme, and refused Anthony’s request for the second time with a heavy heart. However, a further conflict in her marriage compelled Jenny to leave Laurence’s house. She tried locating Anthony, but he had already vacated his hotel room and resigned from his job. He disappeared. Jenny left Anthony’s letter with the woman editor of The London Chronicle, and that’s how they found their way to the archive of the newspaper where Ellie was researching.
In a conversation with Ellie, an old Jenny disclosed that she returned to Laurence to support her daughter. She finally left him after the law helped her. Jenny tried her best to get in touch with Anthony, but she felt he didn’t want to be found after a point.
Ellie was in touch with both Jenny and Anthony and had heard their plight. She learned from their mistakes and tried to change her own life from that lesson. She made peace with the memories of her former lover and forged ahead. Ellie contacted Rory, and together, the couple decided to pave a bridge for Jenny and Anthony.
Following the romantic rituals, Anthony wrote a letter to Jenny. He invited her for a meeting in Postman’s Park which was also their sacred location. Jenny arrived, and the two separated lovers yearning for each other’s embrace finally met each other. Together, they imagined the possibility of what could have been their story if Jenny would have arrived on Platform two in the past, and they would have left London together for an uncertain future.
“Their eyes met, and in those few silent moments, he told her everything. He told her that she was the most astonishing thing he had ever encountered. He told her he loved her.”
― Jojo Moyes, The Last Letter from Your Lover.
In the end, Anthony and Jenny held each other and welcomed an affectionate future together.
The Last Letter from Your Lover is a 2021 Romantic Drama film directed by Augustine Frizzell. The film is based on Jojo Moyes‘ 2012 novel of the same name.
