Life Changes with the Seasons

"Another Year"

"Life isn't always kind, is it?"  This is a line from British filmmaker Mike Leigh's latest feature, Another Year.  This character driven drama centers around a long time, happily married couple, Gerri and Tom (Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent) and the chance encounters they have with friends and family throughout the course of one year.  Despite the genuine relationship the two of them have, everyone else around them seems to be in some sort of highly emotional state because something is missing from their lives.

Gerri and Tom's friend Mary (Lesley Manville) is an emotional wreck due to her two failed marriages, having to accept the fact she is getting older, and her financial woes.  Their other friend Ken (Peter Wight) is single, utterly unhappy with his job, and just sort of stuck in a rut with being too afraid to retire.  The couple's 30 year old son Joe (Oliver Maltman) also too is single and looking for someone to start a relationship with and eventually give his parents some grandchildren.  Lastly there is Tom's older brother Ronnie (David Bradley) who just lost his wife. 

 Some of these characters reoccur throughout the changing of the seasons.  With each juncture we see some the characters grow and develop for better or worse.  Occasionally the screenplay gives us little snippets here and there of what each of these supporting characters' lives used to be like.  In the past their lives were a ten while their present lives are more like a one.

Leigh does a skillful job of letting his mature, adult actors shape and mold their characters with clear and distinctive personalities.  Their performances are never dull or boring to watch because we can tell the ensemble cast has done their homework.  Leigh treats us like we too are a guest in Gerri and Tom's beautiful home indulging in scrumptious dinners with a glass of our favorite wine listening to the personal problems of each character.

 The film has a theatrical quality to it and could easily work as a stage play.  Leigh's direction appears plain and effortless on the surface but it is gradually apparent that the quality of work that is on screen is exceptional.  All the layers of characterization that are woven in and out of each scene or season for that matter are involving and complex but never hard to understand.

Another Year is a film for an audience that is looking for a well written, dialogue driven screenplay with real emotional depth to its characters.  The film is by no means is the feel good movie of 2010 but Mike Leigh has proven that his films are always honest and engaging.