ANOTHER YEAR
I have talked in length on multiple occasions about the amazing talent of Mike Leigh and the actors that work with him. Just a reminder... in all of his movies, he doesn't create scripts in the strict sense. Rather, he creates characters with a select group of trusted actors and then sets them loose in situations and encounters he develops that the actors haven't specifically rehearsed for. It's dramatic improvisation perfected. I can't understand the mystery of that kind of process, but the excitement that everything you see in his movies is being made up on the spot, that the actors are reacting as people AND as their characters, is incredible to behold. The fact that it stays so coherent and engaging is a credit to the direction and the performances.
Mike Leigh's last film, Happy-Go-Lucky (a top 10 favorite of mine for that year), had its momentum on the unrelenting optimism of the main character, a kindergarden teacher who remained young at heart and reacted with smiles and cheerfulness to all adversity. It was an inspiring performance which I at least hoped at the time would actually impact how I view the world. Yeah, it moved me a little bit.
Another Year gives us a calming and content middle-aged couple (Jim Broadbent, of Moulin Rougue fame, and Ruth Deen) that are less boisterous than the young lady in Happy-Go-Lucky but no less infectious in their warmth. What they have to contend with are some lonely and desperate people in their circle of family and friends. The style of the film makes it inherently slow and patient, but the realistic character moments make it very rewarding. The couple serves as the steady anchor of the movie, and I could find very little flaws in them other than the human quirks that are easily countered by the compromise and happiness that a successful marriage symbolizes.
The characters that rotate around them create such a sharp contrast, and they are definitely the dynamic force that drives the movie's tension, especially in the excellent performance of Lesley Manville as an aging flirtatious assistant in the Manville character's social worker office.
You can see the amazing power of people that find their soul mate early and have figured a major part of their lives out, and with that stability comes an amazing ability to be good friends to other people. But eventually as the film goes into a darker direction, the tolerant nature of the happy characters gives in to just a hint of annoyance at the people that cling to them expecting help in figuring out the major disappointments in their own lives. There's a limit to what even the kindest people can do for others, and you feel for the others that are going to have to eat some humble pie and find a different kind of peace than what this central couple has.
This is the kind of movie that I think impacts people in different ways. For anyone with someone special in their lives, it will for sure make them appreciate what they have. For others that don't, it provides a subtle suggestion that perpetual loneliness is mostly a state of mind, and you can always question your evolving standards of companionship without considering it "settling".
But I honestly have troubling nailing down a universal theme for Another Year which is why it is a little bit low on this list. It really is just another amazing unique movie by Mike Leigh.
Mike Leigh's last film, Happy-Go-Lucky (a top 10 favorite of mine for that year), had its momentum on the unrelenting optimism of the main character, a kindergarden teacher who remained young at heart and reacted with smiles and cheerfulness to all adversity. It was an inspiring performance which I at least hoped at the time would actually impact how I view the world. Yeah, it moved me a little bit.
Another Year gives us a calming and content middle-aged couple (Jim Broadbent, of Moulin Rougue fame, and Ruth Deen) that are less boisterous than the young lady in Happy-Go-Lucky but no less infectious in their warmth. What they have to contend with are some lonely and desperate people in their circle of family and friends. The style of the film makes it inherently slow and patient, but the realistic character moments make it very rewarding. The couple serves as the steady anchor of the movie, and I could find very little flaws in them other than the human quirks that are easily countered by the compromise and happiness that a successful marriage symbolizes.
The characters that rotate around them create such a sharp contrast, and they are definitely the dynamic force that drives the movie's tension, especially in the excellent performance of Lesley Manville as an aging flirtatious assistant in the Manville character's social worker office.
You can see the amazing power of people that find their soul mate early and have figured a major part of their lives out, and with that stability comes an amazing ability to be good friends to other people. But eventually as the film goes into a darker direction, the tolerant nature of the happy characters gives in to just a hint of annoyance at the people that cling to them expecting help in figuring out the major disappointments in their own lives. There's a limit to what even the kindest people can do for others, and you feel for the others that are going to have to eat some humble pie and find a different kind of peace than what this central couple has.
This is the kind of movie that I think impacts people in different ways. For anyone with someone special in their lives, it will for sure make them appreciate what they have. For others that don't, it provides a subtle suggestion that perpetual loneliness is mostly a state of mind, and you can always question your evolving standards of companionship without considering it "settling".
But I honestly have troubling nailing down a universal theme for Another Year which is why it is a little bit low on this list. It really is just another amazing unique movie by Mike Leigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment