ANOTHER YEAR (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Mike Leigh
Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville,
Oliver Maltman, Peter Wright, David Bradley,
Martin Savage, Karina Fernandez, Imelda Staunton,
Phil Davis, Michele Austin, Stuart McQuarrie
Another slice-of-life ensemble piece from Mike Leigh, who continues to make extraordinary movies about ordinary people. This one's about a small group of mostly older Britons, middle-class people in their early 60s, still working but looking toward the horizon at retirement, and beyond that the time when, as one of them puts it, they'll be history themselves. At the center of it are Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) a long-married couple who kid each other and dote on each other and demonstrably still have the hots for each other after 40 years of marriage. Then there's their son Joe, a good-natured guy who's 30 and still single and not terribly concerned about that. Ken, an old friend who looks like he's eating and drinking and smoking his way to an imminent heart attack. Mary, a coworker of Gerri's, who's on the hunt for a man (any man but Ken), and can put away the wine herself. And (eventually) Joe's girlfriend Katie, Tom's widowed brother Ronnie, Ronnie's belligerent son Carl, and a few more. A lot of it's just people talking, over drinks, or dinner, or tea, trying to find humor, and every now and then a solution, to life's everyday problems. They're not perfect, but they try. The whole cast is terrific, but the player who really gets your attention (maybe because her character demands it) is Lesley Manville as Mary. Mary's a lost soul and a lost cause, the kind of desperately needy relative or acquaintance who ultimately can't be helped, and will only bring grief to anybody who tries. It would be easy to take a role like that over the top, but Manville keeps it real, balanced on the edge, where every tic and twitch and darting look is painful.
