ANOTHER YEAR

Pepe's View:

We saw this movie on 16 Dec 2010.  It is a long time since we posted even though we have seen a dozen movies since our last post - it seems we never have time (or the discipline) to sit down and write.

Here goes for the latest movie and we will work backwards from there!

"Another Year" was written and directed by Mike Leigh and is once again a wonderful study of ordinary lives that Mike Leigh is so famous for.  This film really resonated for me as the couple at the centre are "a little older" and see life through similar lenses to mine.  Tom and Gerry (love the names) are happily married - she is a counsellor and he is a geologist/engineer - who live a simple, happy, contented life enjoying each other's company and their family.  The movie follows the 4 seasons of the year and as a background the couple love to grow vegetables in their community garden and in every season we see them working contentedly together sowing ,weeding or harvesting their produce.
Revolving around their lives are numerous friends leading less contented and in most cases very sad and tragic lives.
The acting, as is usual for a Mike Leigh film, is first class with the honours going to Lesley Manville as the friend, Mary, who is perhaps the most tragic character of all.  Tom, played beautifully by Jim Broadbent is a delight as is Gerry, played with so much sensitivity by Ruth Sheen.  Tom's boyhood friend, Ken, is another tragic character and perhaps the saddest and the one I felt most sorry for was Tom's brother, Ronnie, who has just lost his wife and is destined to live the rest of his life alone.
Tom and Gerry's son, Joe, played by Oliver Maltman, brings his girlfriend into their lives and her joy of living and "ordinariness" gives the impression that "Another Year" will be carried on into the next generation.
The film succeeds on all levels - the characters are so real and "ordinary" that I came away from the theatre feeling totally satisfied and sobered with the realisation of how fortunate I am to have a similarly contented happy life and led me to contemplate why some lives are so fortunate and others spend their whole life trying to find some sort of meaning.

Rating:  8/10

Ma's View:

Yes, this film is a delight. We are lucky enough to share the same joy as the central characters in this film - of getting "down and dirty" in the garden.  Truly we humans are simple creatures at heart and it is our tragedy that we often forget this and seek gratification in transient pleasures - getting drunk, partying, trying to impress others, casual relationships.  This couple reveals to us the simple solution of being kind, being true, being busy and fulfilled in your daily life.   Hence, they do not fear growing old as do several of their friends, instead they embrace the grey hair and enhanced wisdom that comes with it. 

As Pepe said, all the acting is excellent with characters so finely drawn you think you know them - indeed I am keen to see the "next year" so involved you become in their lives! But even among these superb performances, the acting honours go to Lesley Manville - probably because hers is the most challenging role.  She portrays Mary, a friend of Gerry's, who perceives and desires the contentment the couple share but doesn't comprehend it.  She is desperately trying to re-capture her youth and looks, has never had a successful relationship and regularly drowns her sorrows in too much wine.  Her constant state of anxiety and stress from a mismanaged life put her in sharp contrast to the tranquility of her friends.  Another friend, Ken, clearly an alcoholic, complains that "all the bars a full of noisy, young people these days", failing to realise that he once was one of them and that's really the only life he understands.

At the heart of the film is the message that we are part of the ongoing cycle of life - just as the seasons come and go and Gerry and Tom tend their garden, so will we have a period of fruitfulness upon this earth and be replaced.  Hence the film examines such events as death and birth;  we share the celebration upon the arrival of a friend's new baby and later on, Tom and Gerry's joy and anticipation when the son brings home his chosen partner in life.   In contrast, their friends grasp desperately at their receding youth and wonder why they are not happy in the present.

All in all, a lovely heart-warming film which instils such affection for the central characters that you can't help hoping for the sequel.

My Score:  8.5/10