Another Year is a gorgeously scripted film that discusses loss, love, and a loss of love as seen through the eyes of a happily married couple. Shown in four seasons the film examines heartache, death, birth, and the pains of growing old by these two people who seem an anchor for those around them caught in the unrestrained surges of life. Director Mike Leigh has created a small wonder of thoughtful examination studying the real faults of very real characters.
Ruth Sheen is Gerri, a counsellor with unending patience whose home seems to be a safe-haven for friends and family whose turmoil leaves them helpless. She shares her home with her husband, Tom (Jim Broadbent), who is as caring as she is, but is not nearly as complacent when he sees the faults of others going untended or being exacerbated. But together they lead a charmed life. They are steadfast and unchanging. Their garden is cared for and produces beautiful tomatoes and there is always a bed ready for the weary wanderer. Their only concern is whether they shall have grandchildren, but even that issue doesn't last long.
I don't believe, however, that this story is exactly about them simply because of the fact that there is so little conflict in their lives. Troubled friends float in and out of their periphery, but the one that always seems to return is Gerri's friend and colleague, Mary (Lesley Manville). Describing her in detail would be long and arduous, but summarizing her is extraordinarily easy: she is simply the most pitiable wretch who scarcely makes it day to day through her life.
I think that this movie is about her. She is older, she is desperately lonely, and she clings on to anything that might keep her afloat. Study her car; her car is everything. How much she invested into a little red car--practically everything she owned, and how that car which she was so optimistic about failed her like everything else has failed her. The unending troubles it gives to her is awful especially when she has poured so much into it, trying so hard to make it happy which would make her happy. Her only constant is Gerri, and even that friendship at times seems precarious. Are some people born unlucky, or do they bring unluckiness onto themselves? I feel that the case of this woman is that the unfairness of her life was not brought about by her actions necessarily, but she has a fragile heart and all of the optimism that she tries to drown her miseries in are no match for the fact that a few simple slights lead her to self-destructive behavior. This film is about her, but it must be told through the eyes of Tom and Gerri or it would simply be too miserable a film to watch.
Often times Mary is brought into contact with those others that would seek a warm embrace from the couple. The one man that might have shown Mary some affection, Ken, she rejects, even though he is equally as lonely and despairing as she. There is Joe, Tom and Gerri's son, whose new girlfriend makes Mary feel irrationally jealous. And then there is Ronnie, Tom's brother and recent widower. At first Mary tries to flirt with him, but in the end I'm not entirely sure what it was that their relationship is or will be. It is no coincidence that the final shot of the film was of the two of them at a crowded dinner table which then slowly panned Mary's miserable face.
I predicted that this film would take something of a conventional approach to its structure, and in that I was mistaken. My fault with this film was its lack of resolution. I do not necessarily believe that all films must be resolved in its entirety--least of all with its main characters--but there was almost none to be found whatsoever. A film should be about an arc in which characters grow or change and reach some sort of definite end. That is the goal of the medium, to tell a self-contained story in two hours. Otherwise what's the point? It is simply a spotlight on unhappy people leading unhappy lives all circling about two inexplicably happy seniors. Why is it that they have no troubles even when they are surrounded by a sea of sadness?
In any case, as I have said the dialogue in this film was remarkable. Mike Leigh took a gentle, yet uncompromising view of these people and with his gifted ear for dialogue made something beautiful. Everyone was cast impeccably--Manville and Sheen were especially impressive, but the ensemble, right down the depressed insomniac of the opening scene, where magnificent. This is a very touching movie and a small gem of British cinema.
3.5/4
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