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Netflix viewers can now watch a film starring a string of British screen legends that fans have labelled ‘suspenseful, unpredictable, and subtle’.

The Sense of an Ending is a mystery drama based on the Booker Prize winning novel of the same name by Julian Barnes.

Released in 2017, it starred Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Billy Howle, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode and Joe Alwyn.

The movie is told through Tony Webster’s (played by Jim) memories, and those of his friends, ‘exploring the imperfection and selectivity of memory, and the different recollections of past events, depending on the observer and the time since the event’.

The elderly divorce Tony runs a camera shop in London but one day receives a letter from the estate of Sarah Ford, the mother of his 1960s university girlfriend Veronica.

To his surprise she has left him £500 and a diary, which is still with Veronica, and he then makes efforts to track her down, with long-ago events then coming to the fore.

Charlotte Rampling and Jim Broadbent standing on a bridge in a scene from The Sense of an Ending.
Netflix viewers can now watch the film The Sense of an Ending, starring Charlotte Rampling and
Jim Broadbent (Picture: Rex/ Shutterstock)
Jim Broadbent standing inside a train carriage in a scene from The Sense of an Ending.
The movie is told through Tony Webster’s (Jim) memories and those of his friends

Praising the film on Rotten Tomatoes, fan Kevin wrote: ‘Written well, acted well, suspenseful, unpredictable, and subtle.’

‘This is a slow-moving drama about grief, loss and self-reflection. I found this a quite engrossing and thoughtful watch,’ Isla shared.

‘Intense and original. A real surprise!’ another added.

Jim Broadbent and Harriet Walter sitting at a dinner table holding wine in a scene from The Sense of an Ending.
It also stars British screen legend Harriet Walter (Picture: Rex/ Shutterstock)

Meanwhile other viewers praised the ‘excellent cast’ and Jim’s ‘powerhouse’ while others said it ‘held my attention from start to finish’ and was ‘moving and riveting’.

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Posting on X, Tim said he had started watching it on Netflix and while he ‘realised too late’ he’d seen it before, it was ‘worth a second viewing’.

Speaking ahead of the film’s release, director Ritesh Batra told Town & Country she initially fell in love with the story when reading the book in 2011.

‘It’s about an Englishman of a certain age and class, and the cliché is that that kind of person will have trouble expressing emotions, but in this film there’s a meditation on loss and memory and personal history. It’s about a man’s journey toward closure,’ she explained.

The Sense of an Ending is streaming on Netflix.

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