Another Year (Thursday, December 30, 2010) (168)

Mike Leigh has a wonderful way of making the most mundane people and situations beautiful and interesting. What's even more amazing is that his films are always so dialogue-based and they are always gripping, even when generally about dull topics. Another Year is another great example of this.

In it, Tom and Gerri (funny!) (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) are a married couple in their early 60s. He works as a geologist and she works as a social worker in a hospital. They love to garden, cook and spend time together. They have a grown son, Joe, who is a lawyer, and spend a fair amount of time with Mary (Lesley Manville), who works as a secretary in the same office as Gerri. Mary is a rather pitiful woman who never has luck with love and barely ever stops talking for long enough to figure out what to do differently.

The film is divided into four parts, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Through the course of the year, really through a major event in each season, we see how the friendships of Tom and Gerri with Mary change and develop.

There is nothing fancy about this story and no gigantic central thing (like some of Leigh's other films, Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake, for instance). Instead we get a warm and loving couple in a funny and normal relationship with their grown son and their nutty friends. This is a very gentle, character-driven story, one that moves very slowly, and doesn't really move all that much from beginning to end. Still, what we do see is so heart-felt and charming that it is a pleasure to watch.

All of the characters are full of depth and detail and are beautifully written. There is a certain quality to Mary that is somewhat reminiscent of Shirley Valentine. She's the loopy middle-aged woman whose dreams are bigger than her life will allow. She's totally lovable, if a bit annoying, and has a heart of pure gold. Lesley Manville does a wonderful job here, always talking and getting drunk with too many glasses of wine. She's aware of her situation, but feels like its not totally her fault. Broadbent and Sheen are a wonderful couple and come across as truly in love and in a fabulous marriage. They are able to warmly laugh with one another all the time and be supportive whenever needed.

Leigh uses wonderful cinematography (by frequent collaborator Dick Pope) to help tell the four-part story. The spring is bright and green and red; the summer is yellow and orange; the fall is blueish; and the winter is grayish. Such a transformation helps to move the story along (the narrative follows a similar path from brightness to darkness) and is lovely to experience.

I will say that at times I felt like Leigh was stronger writing and directing the scenes with poorer, less well-bred people than he was with scenes with Tom and Gerri and Joe. I think he is better in general with poorer people, like in his best film Life is Sweet or in Happy-Go-Lucky, where the people are struggling to keep their heads above water (like Mary here or Tom's brother Ronnie and his son Carl). I don't know why this is, but throughout his oeuvre, he always does better with less well-off people. There's something about the dialogue and how it works with the general design aesthetic. Interesting.

What is even more fantastic than Lesley Manville's performance here (which is sometimes a bit overdone), Imelda Staunton does a totally, totally amazing job here in a very brief role at the beginning. The film opens up with her going in for a check up as she is suffering from insomnia. She sees a doctor (one of Gerri's friends) and later comes back for a talking session with Gerri. She is a totally worn down and depressed with her terrible life. She is so powerful you identify with her immediately and want to scream out for help for her. She also really sets the tone of the movie, where Gerri is an upbeat woman dealing with very sad people who are not receptive to love and kindness. Even though she's only on screen for 5 minutes, Staunton totally deserves acting awards for her performance.

This is really a top-notch Mike Leigh film. Much of the last act has Mary talking to Ronnie, a sad and suffering man totally lost without his wife who did everything for him. Through most of the sequence, Mary does 90 percent of the talking (as she is wont to do), but we still get the most amazing interaction between the two. This is not a dull scene at all; it's painful, pitiful and uncomfortable, but it is exactly what is at the heart of Leigh's view of things and particularly of this film. People are searching for connections, some find them and some don't. Those who don't find someone grasp for anything they can find in the dark. It's very powerful.

Stars: 3.5 of 4