**** out of ****
Directed by: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Peter Wight and Oliver Maltman
Running time: 129 minutes
British writer/director Mike Leigh is known for deriding the traditional Hollywood manner of storytelling. As he once said, “Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I’d prefer steel pins.”
Leigh is also notable for his unconventional style of writing, directing and teaching. His films aren’t penned on paper; instead, he nixes the script and works with his cast to develop the concept and characters organically. Ironically, he has still received five original screenplay nominations. The latest one is for a humanist comedy-drama titled Another Year.
It’s a type of film that we rarely see pop up any more but need to see more of: thoughtful, charming and sympathetic, and more reliant on the character dynamics as its driving force than a rigid, complex storyline.
We are introduced to a couple named Tom (portrayed by Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen), a husband and wife unlike the normal screen couple for two reasons. First, the conflict is absent. These two have such a rich, healthy, wholesome friendship that just a mild touch or brief statement can ignite the passion and companionship underneath. The second difference is that they are in late middle-age.
Tom and Gerri live a pleasant existence in their cozy Northern England townhouse. Their 30-year-old son, a modest and remarkably polite man named Tom, pops in from time to time to spread the love. They also commonly invite Mary (Lesley Manville), a secretary in Gerri’s office, to eat, drink and be merry with them (with the emphasis on the drink – the wine flows so often here, these British chaps make the folks in Sideways seem sober).
The film is divided into four snippets reliving the four seasons in a year in their lives – showing such highlights as a summer barbeque hosting by Tom and Gerri, the arrival of Tom’s girlfriend and a death in the family. Photographed with four different film stocks by Dick Pope, as we shift through the seasons, the film’s tone switches from cheery, casual warmth and happiness to become more bleak and discouraging. Or in other words, kind of like life itself.
Leigh, an astute observer of human behaviour, focuses our attentions on the actors and their ever-changing personalities and gestures, and not toward the advancement of story events. The film unfolds at a pace that is slow, but with such attention drawn toward the finely nuanced performances, one that is never dry or boring.
Lesley Manville is a standout of this rich, wonderfully diverse ensemble. Her character, Mary, begins as a comically cute and carefree spirit. We all know someone like Mary: a willfully optimistic gal with candor and confidence who likes to sell her happiness, perking up to her friends and drowning her stomach with wine.
Some suspect that she may be using this cheery charade as a mask to shelter her insecurity and regret - and this is exactly so for Mary. She is still on the hunt for the perfect man, but slowly coming to terms with how her time is indeed up. It is simply "too late" for her to get the romantic, fulfilling life she wanted.
The film begins with her as a mere supporting player, but by the haunting, unsparingly raw final shot – the camera gazes at her as she stares down, sorrowfully – Mary becomes the soul we remember the most. Under Leigh’s assured hand, it is the year's most heartbreaking performance in one of the year’s best films.
No comments:
Post a Comment