SummaryIn the Spring, happily married Gerri, a medical counselor, and Tom, a geologist, tend their allotment. They entertain Gerri's lonely work colleague Mary, and their community lawyer son Joe, throughout the year. [Sony Classics]
SummaryIn the Spring, happily married Gerri, a medical counselor, and Tom, a geologist, tend their allotment. They entertain Gerri's lonely work colleague Mary, and their community lawyer son Joe, throughout the year. [Sony Classics]
The power of this film creeps up on you by stealth; its dramatic idiom is admittedly mannered in the Leigh style but shy of caricature, and designed consistently to abrade the audience's consciousness without irritating – fingertips down the blackboard, not fingernails.
Getting a small cohort of humanity dead right is an impressive artistic achievement, but Mike Leigh's beautifully modulated English drama Another Year advances even farther.
I feel as though there is a several thousand word review in me to discuss the new Mike Leigh film, Another Year, which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but I have to admit this is a film that, though I love for many reasons, I feel not many people I know will ever see it, and so I'm going to sum up my thoughts with a brief reflection.
Mary (Leslie Manville) gives one of the absolute best performances I have seen in film, as an aging alcoholic woman who is alone and depressed and desperate but cannot see what she needs to do to change anything. She frequently visits with a co-worker Gerri (Ruth Sheen) who is happily married to Tom (Jim Broadbent) and they seem to tolerate her because they are basically good people living a healthy life together. This is a British film set in the London area with realistic people playing very realistic roles. The film is told through the 4 seasons and takes us through many emotions, but it is totally in the character of Mary that we lose ourselves as we contemplate her sadness, but as Mike Leigh does so well, we don't just see one side from the other characters around this central figure, we see the entire spectrum of good and bad.
I would not suggest this film for many people I know, but I would recommend it to anyone who loves a great movie about real life.
It's as subversive and penetrating a treatment of the British character as we get on the big screen, and it's why I don't mind that Leigh keeps them coming 'round with the reliability of the cocktail hour.
Has to be watched more than once to appreciate it. I have not seen a movie which so captures the isolation and despair of loneliness. Its a real movie about real people, those in relationships and those who linger alone.
As far as acting is concerned, "Another Year" is full of stellar performances. Lesley Manville is superb as the family friend who is unhappy with her life, but is unable to face the reality of it. Broadbent and Sheen are also excellent in their performances, but so is the supporting staff. Leigh's sweetheart from before, Imelda Staunton, is poignant and a memorable character, though she only appears in the first five minutes of the film. Leigh has done a good character study of unhappy, depressed people and how they might look, behave, what they might talk about, etc. What Leigh failed at doing is managing to make the film more dynamic and appealing to a broader audience. Yes, he has excellent characters and excellent performances, but those cannot make a great film on their own. Making a film look real does not mean that it has to be boring or mundane. There are certainly times when the film feels contrived and too "artsy" in favour of the entertainment value. Then again, Leigh never really went for entertainment value over his craft, so that is to no surprise. Definitely not a film for everyone, but it is an interesting story with super acting, which definitely makes it worth the watch!
A quiet, melodrama free character study that requires patience. There are no big plot twists or cathartic moments in Another Year, just human beings struggling to make do with the hands they have been dealt in life. Skillfully directed and wonderfully acted, but also a bit of a bore.
If this is what Mike Leigh encounters in his every day life then I think he should find another circle of friends. His new friends should be calm, articulate and capable of getting through a sentence without the use of an idiom.
The writer-director, Mike Leigh, tries to capture moments of everyday life, which in 'kitchen-sink' England means lots of ashen-skinned people being glad that it's not raining and sad about everything else. And then they drink lots of wine and say pointless things like 'for my sins' a lot. 'Another Year' successfully captures the lack of pace and unedited feel of daily life, and yet strangely Leigh cannot avoid making it seem artificial. Highlights of the film included an interminable sequence in which Leslie Manville puts on a painful slurred-drunkenness act, and a dinner with a character called Ken who had clearly been directed to talk with his mouth full, because no matter when the camera catches him nor how much he's concurrently drinking or seeming to swallow, there is always a chunk of food in the left cheek. A clumsy, awkward, slow, ragged and annoying film. But still miles better than 'Happy Go Lucky'.