Another Year

source: Another Year

Please just strangle that smug couple before I throw something at the screen .. is this the reaction you hoped to evoke Mike Leigh? Or are Tom and Gerri your idea of a "healthy" couple? Are you likewise vapid and sanctimonious? Of course your nebulous framework leaves us only to wonder ...what WAS the message here? yes it made me think, forced me to draw my own conclusions and for that you have again triumphed. These characters stirred up lots of emotion in me. I felt disdain for the heroes (note son's cajoling girlfriend) and genuine empathy/fondness for the tragic ones (all of them).. but then again which were the real tragedies ? Geri and her like are the reason I avoid therapy. Having never struggled herself she is hardly sympathetic. The sanctity of her boring life shelters her from developing real relationships with the fascinating people surrounding her. Ditto Tom. Their shared comfort is wrought with complacency and co-dependence. Neither feels a need to truly relate with other people as they consistently crawl back into each others arms for a nightly sh*t talk about their less fortunate friends. There is nothing wrong with a symbiotic relationship but this one is so lofty and banal I'd rather be single and have a ..well.. personality. that leads us to Mary. poor desperate Mary. She took chances in life that earned her a colorful personality, but scarcely more. She did not settle into monotony yet she found only heartache. She is horribly lonely. Mary's emptiness leads her to vices like alcohol, little red cars and fake friends. Still she is more genuine than the other star players here as she is honest with her misery.

On the surface this is a movie about the day to day life of an elderly, happily married couple (Tom and Gerri), their son and friends, among them Mary and Ken. All seems well in suburban London until that very last shot of the film, a most disturbing scene, the climax of the movie. We see Mary at the kitchen table of her friends and as the conversation passes her by she realizes she doesn't matter to them any more. Worse, we see it dawning on her that she may never have mattered to them at all in their relationship of 20 years. The comparison with her car is inevitable, a vehicle that should have brought her a sense of freedom, but turned out to be a lemon if ever there was one. As another commenter wrote, it is a scene of exceptional cruelty. (Can I nominate Ms Manville for an Oscar, please ?) How could this insincerity, this not-so-mild form of wickedness persist over such a long time ? Perhaps it has something to do with the British fondness of manners, but I think it has to do with work, more specifically in Tom and Gerri's case with having a profession, being a professional. A professional is someone who is applying a set of rules, an algorithm to a standard input to produce a standard output. (What distinguishes a professional from a craftsman is that the input, rules and output are so complex that they defy supervision.) Tom and Gerri are professionals and what they are doing is extending their professional attitude to their personal lives. Their relationship with Mary is professional. Their marriage is dealt with professionally. Their marital bliss is ultimately based on their contentment with the standardized output it produces. Tomatoes anyone ? Contrast this with Ken and Mary. Ken is an alcoholic in bad physical shape. He was once handsome however and has a good heart. His problem is that he questions the meaning of his job, which in his case seems to amount to questioning the meaning of his life. And then there is Mary. Her goal in life is Love, not work, thereby committing the ultimate sin (not making work your life goal that is). Two scenes illustrate the stranglehold work has on our lives (and the importance of it for the movie's theme, I think). In the first an Asian couple is visiting Joe, an old man threatened with eviction and a young woman acting as his interpreter, her ability to help the old man, however, limited to the duration of her lunch break. In the second Carl arrives too late for his mother's funeral, having been stuck in a traffic jam. The funeral couldn't be postponed however, another one was already waiting. So are Tom and Gerri right ? At the dinner table Tom is telling of how he and Gerri met, by chance on their first day in university. This detail hints at the internal inconsistency of their way of life. And of course right at the beginning of the movie there is this session of Gerri with the sleepless patient, an Everywoman. It shows her utterly failing in her role of counselor, her very profession. Mary is indeed looking for love in all the wrong places. At the end of the film you realize that, despite all appearances Tom & Gerri's was such a place.

At the end of the credits you'll discover that the producer is named - and the year he died (2009). Presumably, when he died something connected with this film died with him. This is a pointless film with a poorly directed cast of directionless characters. It was the Imelda Staunton character whom you see only at the beginning that was of most interest to me. Imelda played her part perfectly - I also know that there are many women like the character played. Women who are struggling with real difficulty but refuse to talk to the useless creatures that provide 'talking therapies' like Gerri. I disliked Gerri to the same degree that the character was accurately portrayed as putting up a wall of 'indifference' to real distress. Well acted though it was, frankly, in the context of this film I couldn't give a damn. I'd rather I'd spent the two hours watching this car crash of a film doing something else....mucking out the stables or cleaning the rugby team's boots. I love Jim Broadbent but this was not enough to keep my interest. Sorry folks, this film lacks any merit.

Mike Leighs wonderfully ironic yet sweet look at life takes a little twist in this super ensemble movie which centers around Tom and Gerri and shows us these characters mainly as reflected by their friends and kin. What makes the twist is something written in a different review and which is apparently a Continental European viewpoint if I must believe Mr. Leigh. The minor flaw of this film is that Tom and Gerri hardly develop and if they do, it really is downwards as - when you leave the theatre - you are left with some questions as to whether they really are as warm and supportive as they appear prima facie. Why are all their friends alcoholic losers? And why are they so supportive, yet so aloof? We found a few scenes that show how Tom and Gerri feel about Mary (a shoe-in for any award because of the slightly over-the-top, nail biter performance by Lesley Manville). Their friends really make them feel better about themselves. Whatever may be of this Continental take, it is a tremendously enjoyable movie, as always.

This movie touches upon current sociological and psychological conditions that result to alienation and loneliness. The theme repeats itself on the problematic characters of a group of friends in their 50s, namely Ken and Mary as well as Tom's brother. They all resort to alcohol but that is the side effect of their problem, not the root cause. There is an unfortunate equation between single people and despair. This bias is expressed also in the story of the couple's son, who seems to worry during the time he is single and who 'has it made' once he finds a girl who assumes his parents' acceptance and friendship, admits she is starving to people she just met (no manners) and licks her fingers (no manners). Meanwhile Tom and Gerry are the voice of reason and somehow, I felt they were also Mike Leigh's voice. Of course, as others here have mentioned, their portrayal may not be seen as virtuous as I have perceived it. There is a certain coldness within their kindness about them just as cold as the way the priest received the late-coming son of the deceased woman at the funeral. Mary who is at the centre of the film, is a pile of trouble. She is turned down by Tom and Gerry's ugly son and Tom's socially handicapped brother, only to get attention from fat and alcoholic Ken. In a desperate move to celebrate her independent life rather than mourn for her loneliness, she buys a car but that only becomes a source of more trouble. As if Leigh wants to tell us that no car can give her the happy life of a married couple who live in harmony cultivating their veggies. The question that floats in the air can be whether her unbalanced character has caused her loneliness or vice versa. What keeps this film together are the masterful indoor scenes, the convincing dialogues and the top notch acting. Careful considerations have been made in how people act in their everyday lives and that has been extraordinarily engaging.

Another Year is the kind of film an actor wishes they had been in and any director wishes they had made. Mike Leigh's skillful directing is at its peak. Long, lingering shots of the characters angst (which normally frustrate the audience) are achieved in an effortless way. The acting is so flawless that it is difficult to find fault. The story is simple and meandering...but it works, and works incredibly well. Another Year will not be to the taste of the young kick-cutting action packed generation. It requires a mature audience or an audience that have at least pondered about what their life would be like after their forties. This will gain nominations and should win Oscars.

This movie was one of the most depressing films I've ever seen and I can relate to it after living 2 years in sad England. Contrary to what many people around the world think - British society is highly dysfunctional, depressed, lonely, lacking in emotions, cold, insensitive and angry. This film depicts all of that. There is an old English couple who are together after years of being Married but they are awfully Boring people.... they have a son who looks like a "potato" and has no personality... and all the other characters in the movie are faaaar toooo depressing to even mention. Sadly - this is very true about modern British society - and I really feel that Britain is the most depressed ugly nation in the world. Compared to France - Britain is socially backward, inept and full of loneliness and this movie successfully shows all that on the Big screen. Moreover Britain is UGLY - and the people are ugly - their ugliness stems not from their race but rather from their diet and depression caused by loneliness. It's funny but I compare this film to another recently released french movie - My afternoons with Margueritte - which was full of emotions, warmth, drama and beauty... and that is France for you. Even the poor in France are more human than any British - who have all become very cold insensitive people with no connections with their families, society or friends (if they even have any). There is no sense of "community" left in Britain - and it's become like this greedy money obsessed nation where people don't care for each other or for normal human relations. Another Year also shows the reality of family relations in the UK - a son is late for his mother's funeral and doesn't really give a damn anyway - his father lost his wife but seems lost himself...the day she dies he wants to drink beer instead of tea....these are all real situations in everyday life within British society. The little bit of multi-cultural-ism in UK has made it somewhat colourful and interesting - and if it hadn't been for that I would have killed myself in this depressing country after a month of living here. The movie should have been named - "Another Sad Year in Britain".

After watching the trailer for this film I really expected something quirky and thought provoking. However at the end I was left unamused that I'd lost 2 hours with nothing to show for it....apart from the fact that I was itching to see what other people thought about it. To see if I am the only person in this world that thinks Another Year is nothing more than a bad attempt at dramatic progression. And I am! I cannot disagree more with ever review that I've read thus far. The story starts off promising, with a depressed lady (played by Imelda Staunton) in a doctors office. Which was the best thing in the film....for me, anyway. Imelda Staunton is fantastic! But you only see her twice, each for a very short time. Then we see Lesley Manville's character. Another depressant which in my opinion is completely over acted by Manville. We're further introduced to other depressing characters whose roles in the film lead to absolutely nothing. The story leads to nothing, the acting is terrible and the direction offers no inspiring thoughts. It's obvious that the story is about how lucky we are and the paths we choose in life can lead upwards or downwards. But surely all that can be conveyed in such a much more entertaining way. Because after all, that's why we watch films right? To be entertained and left thinking afterwards. Not to be bored to death by mindless & random story telling. My thinking is that all positive comments come from Mike Leigh's reputation. What a load of dribble.

This film certainly aged me. 2 hours of plodding wooden drama with minimal interplay between the principals and almost no story development at all. A great sense of relief came over me when the fade to screen indicated that it was over after a penultimate excruciatingly slow morose scene between 2 near mute characters. My idea of hell would be dinner with the director of this leaden effort. A totally joyless experience all round, in keeping with most of his body of work. Thankfully it was half price day at the cinema so we only felt 1/2 cheated of our hard earned cash