|
Another Year
| Released |
5 November 2010 |
| Director |
Mike Leigh |
Starring
|
Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman |
| Writer(s) |
Mike Leigh |
| Producer(s) |
Georgina Lowe |
| Origin |
United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
129 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy, drama |
| Rating |
12A |
|
|
Growing old gracefully.
Like all of Mike Leigh’s best work, Another Year is a small movie in which very little actually happens. Ostensibly about the process of leaving behind one’s middle ages and facing the future, it actually has little to say beyond the four walls in which it is primarily set. This is far from a criticism; Another Year is a perfectly composed snapshot of its own little world and is beautifully observed, funny and touching.
In Spring we meet married couple Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) and the various family and friends that float in and out of their lives over the course of a year including their son Joe and Gerri’s workmate and friend of the family, Mary (Lesley Manville). Mary is a wonderful Leigh creation and the sad heart of the film- a motor-mouthed bag of nerves and insecurities desperately trying to cling onto both her youth and her friendship with Tom and Gerri. Facing up to her life alone, she lives vicariously through her happily married friends while struggling to keep a hold on her emotions. Manville’s performance is deeply affecting, particularly in her quieter moments in which there is a desperate sadness in her eyes.
The rest of the cast is just as excellent. Leigh’s process of long periods of rehearsal before shooting is evident in the effortlessly natural exchanges that occur between characters. Broadbent and Sheen immediately convince as a couple who have been together forever and are utterly comfortable in each other’s company. David Bradley as Tom’s recently widowed brother Ronnie also deserves a mention- he gives the subtlest of performances as a lost soul.
Another Year is a wonderful film and is thankfully much more focused than Happy Go Lucky. Be warned though, despite the occasional light moment, to describe Another Year as a comedy/drama may be pushing it a little. The film ends on a distinctly melancholy note that could well set you soul-searching for the rest of the day.
- Linda O’Brien |
