Another Year (**)
Directed by: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver
Maltman, David Bradley, Karina Fernandez, Martin Savage
Seen: March 20th 2011
** Out of ****
While Another Year has its merit, I classify it as a movie that is
being shown at art-house cinemas because it won’t make it commercially. Not that
it is in any way bad, in fact, the acting is as fine as you’re likely to see anywhere
this year, it’s just the kind of story that will only find a limited audience,
and then mostly when they’re in the mood for it.
The interestingly named couple Tom (Broadbent) and Gerri (Sheen) have
been together forever. Tom is a geologist who, according to those who know him,
drills holes for a living. Gerri is a counsellor, and a very understanding
person for it. One of her colleagues, Mary (Manville), is a single woman in her
middle to late forties, and after a few failed marriages and relationships, her
outlook on life and love is not the most positive anymore. Tom and Gerri are
wonderful people, the kind you wish you’d known, they are always there for
their friends and family, always supportive, always welcoming, and whenever
Mary arrives at their door they receive her with open arms. Ken (Wight), Tom’s
friend, also single, visits Tom and Gerri and for pretty much the entire time
he is on screen he is either eating, drinking, or smoking his sorrows away. He falls
apart in front of Tom and Gerri at one point, his loneliness overcoming him in that
moment of being in the company of two people who are never lonely. When Mary
shows up to a gathering of friends at Tom and Gerri’s, he does his best to get
closer to her, but she coldly shuts down his advances.
Tom and Gerri’s son Joe (Maltman) is a lawyer, and at 30 years old
also still single. Mary harbours hopes of something happening between her and
Joe, who sees her as an aunt, and when Joe eventually introduces his new
girlfriend Katie (Fernandez) to the family, Mary is visibly unsettled,
completely not her usual bubbly and overly chirpy self for the rest of the
evening.
These and other happenings are presented in four segments; Spring,
Summer, Autumn and Winter, and they are presented as just another year in the
lives of the stable couple, Tom and Gerri, as they support and live with their
friends and family. The final scene of the movie shows, in a very sad and
desperate last shot, the actual lead character of the movie, and this moment’s
realisation hits quite hard as it spins the whole movie’s story into a much
more depressing direction. Tom and Gerri are a breath of fresh air as a couple
who are actually happy, and Tom with his often unthinking wisdoms and Gerri
with the reins on Tom are a pleasure to see. Mary is the epitome of neurosis,
and Lesley Manville does a fantastic job at bringing her to life on screen.
But Another Year feels just like that, another year, as the
presentation of the four segments does make a part of you wish that the next
season doesn’t last as long as the previous one. If this were on TV, I’d have
changed the channel or simply turned off the television long before the end of
spring. This would have made me miss a few good performances and a pensive
conclusion to this movie, but I don’t believe I’d have been any worse off for
not seeing them.
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