Another Year Review

Mike Leigh's Another Year garnered a well-deserved Best Original Screenplay nomination in this year's Oscar race, but the film deserves far more than a single nod.  Leigh has crafted a touching film that finds the beauty in the everyday interactions amongst a happily married couple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) and the friends and family that surround them.  The film has a surprisingly vast feel, though it focuses on a relatively small group of characters.  The seasonal structure lends itself well to providing the audience with various slices of life, and taken together, they create a superbly satisfying whole.

Finding a truly happy couple in today's cinema is a rarity, and when you do, there is typically death right around the corner (because the only happy couples are those old couples on the brink of snuffing it, yes?).  It's so lovely to see a happy couple presented in such a singularly contented state.  There's no drama or betrayal or bitterness to be found between the humorously named Tom (Broadbent) and Gerri (Sheen).  Here we get a portrait of true love that has settled into a happy routine of gardening, quiet dinners at home, and keeping up with the faster-paced lives of their loved ones.

Broadbent and Sheen both shine in their roles.  Broadbent is one of my favorites, and this is one of his best turns.  He radiates welcoming warmth in every scene, especially when attending his sister-in-law's funeral and trying to conduct a smooth reception afterward.  Tom's love for Gerri is moving in its naturalness, the ease with which he tells her that she is beautiful.  Sheen lends Gerri a level head, a mother's heart, and a sharp desire to protect her loved ones.  Even with her friend Mary (Lesley Manville), Gerri takes on a maternal role, rebuking and loving all at once.

Manville has gained much of the film's acclaim, and for good reason.  In Mary, she creates one of recent cinema's most memorable and frustrating characters.  Clinging to her youth, desperate for a life change, doting on Tom and Gerri's son, lonely and lost in this world, Mary lacks direction and meaning, a reality made much harder to take as she witnesses the wedded bliss Tom and Gerri share.  Mary's frantic, almost incoherent rambling is charming even as it reveals her deeper lack of confidence and purpose.  It's a wonderful performance that serves as a sort of anchor in reality for the film: even as we see other characters living in general happiness, Mary reminds us that not everyone has found such an easy, happy routine (a truth also echoed by Imelda Staunton's great, albeit brief, appearance).

Leigh’s screenplay revels in life’s little moments of happiness, whether it’s Tom and Gerri meeting their son’s girlfriend for the first time, or Mary getting a car.  While there’s no overarching narrative to speak of, the film still possesses a steady sense of progression, thanks to the seasonal breaks that serve to mark the stages of life our characters face.  The relaxed pacing is a welcome respite from the more frantic action so many films today employ.  It’s rare for a film to celebrate the quiet normalcy that is so often taken for granted, or even considered with a sense of disappointment.  The easy flow of dialogue, largely comprised of gossip, small talk, and charming British-ness, further adds to the film’s delightful realism.

While the film has no traditional narrative flow to speak of, when it comes to an end, there is still a sense of missing closure, and rightly so.  The film presents us with a year in the lives of some lovely, memorable characters, and when that year comes to an end, our invitation is quietly removed.  Their lives go on, though we don’t get the privilege of seeing where.  In the grander scheme of things, the film represents just Another Year, one that for them may blur with many others, but for viewers stands out for its enthralling glimpse into the blissfully unremarkable.