Another Year (2010)
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 129m
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Oliver Maltman
Synopsis:
A thoroughly grounded lower-middle class couple living in a London terrace divide their spare time between their allotment, their unattached son, and their variously unhappy circle of friends and relatives.
Review:
A film which is structured Ozu-like around the seasons and gathers momentum inexorably towards a funereal winter, during which the pace of the shots slows perceptibly. Tom and Gerry, who act as the hub of the narrative, rather like the Davis and Sheen characters in High Hopes, actually have little to do other than react to the situations thrust upon them, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads as they cosy up for a reassuring cuddle: they at least are alright. This is fine as it throws into relief the troubled others, notably Manville's Mary, a typically febrile portrayal of a woman desperately trying to convince herself she is happy at the beginning, and by the end looking mournfully down the barrel of a lonely middle age. In short, a work from which you will take what you bring to it, since it offers scant hope to the lonely hearts.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 129m
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Oliver Maltman
Synopsis:
A thoroughly grounded lower-middle class couple living in a London terrace divide their spare time between their allotment, their unattached son, and their variously unhappy circle of friends and relatives.
Review:
A film which is structured Ozu-like around the seasons and gathers momentum inexorably towards a funereal winter, during which the pace of the shots slows perceptibly. Tom and Gerry, who act as the hub of the narrative, rather like the Davis and Sheen characters in High Hopes, actually have little to do other than react to the situations thrust upon them, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads as they cosy up for a reassuring cuddle: they at least are alright. This is fine as it throws into relief the troubled others, notably Manville's Mary, a typically febrile portrayal of a woman desperately trying to convince herself she is happy at the beginning, and by the end looking mournfully down the barrel of a lonely middle age. In short, a work from which you will take what you bring to it, since it offers scant hope to the lonely hearts.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 129m
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Oliver Maltman
Synopsis:
A thoroughly grounded lower-middle class couple living in a London terrace divide their spare time between their allotment, their unattached son, and their variously unhappy circle of friends and relatives.
Review:
A film which is structured Ozu-like around the seasons and gathers momentum inexorably towards a funereal winter, during which the pace of the shots slows perceptibly. Tom and Gerry, who act as the hub of the narrative, rather like the Davis and Sheen characters in High Hopes, actually have little to do other than react to the situations thrust upon them, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads as they cosy up for a reassuring cuddle: they at least are alright. This is fine as it throws into relief the troubled others, notably Manville's Mary, a typically febrile portrayal of a woman desperately trying to convince herself she is happy at the beginning, and by the end looking mournfully down the barrel of a lonely middle age. In short, a work from which you will take what you bring to it, since it offers scant hope to the lonely hearts.