Another Year

Mike Leigh's films consistently examine the complexities of relationships, character and class consciousness with credibility born of his unique rehearsal and writing techniques. The inexplicably uneven distribution of happiness and sorrow once again becomes a theme in "Another Year".

Tom and Gerri (excellent Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) are a middle aged couple who enjoy a hard won good life. They garden through the seasons, cook lovely meals, love their good-natured son, and welcome friends to their lives who are not so very happy at all. Tom is an urban geologist, Gerri a social worker. They both dig for deeper information.

Mary (Lesley Manville, in a rather frighteningly brave performance) is so relentlessly self-pitying that she is quite predatory. Ken (a very touching and sad Peter Wight) is also starkly lost, but less directly manipulative than Mary in his sad neediness.

The authentic timing and delivery of dialogue informs every scene, some of which stop just a hair short of grueling. Leigh allows time for feeling to flicker across faces, some wooden, some lively, and for mixed motivations to suggest themselves, and individual vulnerabilities and defenses to show. As in real life, nothing is simplified into formula. The pains and pleasures of family, both chosen and biological, are in sometimes raw display.

The performances, production design and cinematography are consistently superb. Leigh alternates between domestic views, both expansive and claustrophobic, to reveal the dynamics of relationship and identity. Light infuses every scene according to the season of life and botanical growth. The seasonal theme borders a bit close to the literal.

Again, as in "Happy Go Lucky", Leigh stages a painful rejection in the enforced intimacy of a car. I even wondered if it was the same little red car! Savings for production costs!

Sometimes the contrasts are a bit severe in "Another Year". Mary is so dreary and sad and unlikeable, and Katie (Karina Fernandez), the potential daughter in law, is so unfailingly upbeat that some vague incredulity creeps in. Still, there is a tenderness in "Another Year", an accommodation of sadness and isolation in the midst of subtly smug domestic joy that enriches the film in unexpected and lingering thematic tones.

You may not be cheered (Mike Leigh is rarely really cheery), but you will be deeply informed about people engaged in the struggle for choice, happiness and connection in the quiet adventures of mortal life.