Review: Another Year

     I have come out as a pretty strong anti-realist in terms of cinema in many an article on this blog. I have explained my view that films are an unique art form where the use of controlling moving images along with combinations of other influences (music as one example) give an artist an unlimited tool bag to express their emotions and ideas, and by trying to capture some non-existent "real" of the everyday, the artist not only limits the potential of the medium, but fails to capture the overarching theme of life itself: emotions. The thing is though, while I steadfastly hold on to these beliefs, there is no genre that is in and of itself, by definition, bad. In general, one genre may have its weakness and I am okay with characterizing the genre as such, but a good artist is a good artist, and their are always ways to overcome any artistic challenge (such as amazing insight). My preferences though led me be somewhere quite significantly less than excited to see Mike Leigh's "Another Year", which from the trailers look to be a heavy-handed exercise in realist cinema, but to my pleasant surprise what I saw instead was an insightful character study of a certain type of lonely older-middle-age personality that is all too common in life.

     "Another Year" is essentially four different acts, one for each season of the year (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter). The film gives us a glimpse of the life of a happily married older couple, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen), and their dealings with aging family and friends. In particular, "Another Year" focuses on the friendship between Tom and Gerri and Gerri's desperately lonely work colleague, Mary (Lesley Manville). Mary is a regular staple of the household, as being a divorced woman with no children leaves her with not much else to do. Her friendship with the couple is the only meaningful human interaction she has, leading her to cling to the friendship to the point of annoyance for Tom and Gerri. Throughout everything that happens though, the couple do their best to be there for everyone, trying to help them cope with changes and the realization that the prime of their lives has come and gone.

     The film's first act is Spring. This portion of the film serves as an introduction to the characters and their lives. Gerri works as a psychologist at an office where Mary does secretarial work. Tom is some sort of engineer who deals judging the stability of the ground on which large structures are built. The two host a night of food and alcoholic beverages for Mary and themselves. Mary takes liberally from the alcoholic offerings, "forcing" her to stay the night over and giving us an idea behind her fears and motivations.

     The film then moves to Summer, where an old friend of Tom's from out of town, Ken (Peter Wight), comes to London to take part in their summer cookout. Ken is a man stuck in a rut. Alone, depressed, but scared of change, Ken is painfully frozen in memories of the time when his generation was up and coming, and has since been left behind. At the cookout, Mary rejects Ken's advances, while trying to develop a delusional relationship with the much younger Joe (Oliver Maltman), the 30 year-old son of Tom and Gerri, who politely humors Mary without trying to encourage her too much.

     The third act is Autumn, where Joe brings home his new pleasant natured girlfriend Katie (Karina Fernandez) to meet his parents. When Mary arrives though, the happy atmosphere dissipates, as Mary's obvious jealousy and out-right hostility towards Katie puts everyone in an awkward position. When the happy young couple leave, Gerri's anger towards Mary's impolite behavior is clear, and Mary leaves the house on a sour note.

     The film's finale is Winter, where Gerri, Tom, and Joe visit Tom's brother Ronnie (David Bradley), in order to attend and help him out with the funeral of his wife. The funeral is quick and sterile, but when Ronnie's estranged son Carl (Martin Savage) shows up late, livid that they did not hold up the service for him, he becomes very confrontational. The family go back to Ronnie's house along with some of his wife's co-workers, but when Carl shows off, he goes off the handle causing everyone to leave. Not wanting to leave the depressed Ronnie with his irate, contentious son, they bring Ronnie back to their home. While Gerri and Tom are out, Ronnie answers the door to find a disheveled and distraught Mary desperate to talk with Gerri. While waiting for their return, Mary comes down a bit and develops a friendship with Ronnie. When Tom and Gerri come back, Mary apologizes to Gerri for how she acted in their Autumn encounter, as her emotional need to maintain their friendship becomes painfully obvious. She accepts her apology and invites her to stay for dinner, along with Joe and Katie who are soon to arrive. This ends their feud, but as the credits role, it is all too apparent that Mary is a human being who will never find true happiness.

     The brilliance of this film, much as with another great film this year, "The Social Network", is it perfectly captures a certain type of human being in Mary. I have known a few people like her, and it was eery to see how accurately Mike Leigh managed to recreate this personality type. Mary is the type of person who means well, but can't help but be a burden to everyone she knows. She paradoxically thinks too much and too little at the same time, saying whatever comes to her mind, but then overanalyzing everyone's reactions (especially kindness) to her. She is also the type of person who constantly is asking herself, "Am I happy?", which is the most surefire way to guarantee a life of depression. This causes her to cling onto every friendship she has, putting her friends (such as Gerri) in the awkward position of patronizing her, simply placating her desires until the point of annoyance.

     Now of course a greatly written role still requires a fine performance, and Lesley Manville delivers on this front. Her performance as Mary is as starkly real as anything your likely to ever see on the silver screen. Her performance completes the allusions that you are even watching a movie, giving the audience the feel of an eavesdropper more than theater patrons. It is the best performance by female in a film this year, and behind Jessie Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg, it is probably my favorite performance. It is a real shame she missed out on an Oscar nomination. My guess is that this was likely due to category confusion, as Oscar pundits themselves were unsure of whether to include her in the Best Actress or Supporting Actress category. It is a tough call, because the focus of the film is Tom and Gerri and their happy household, but the real star of the film, and it's emotional core and focus, is on Mary and her touchingly pathetic life. I think I would have considered her for the leading role, but either way, I wish the Academy would have found room to nominate her.

     The one Oscar nomination the film did receive, and rightfully so, was for Best Original Screenplay. Mike Leigh's script, along with his confident direction, is truly something to behold. It is really amazing how he so accurately manages to capture the "small talk" conversations between family and friends. It is especially inspired in how Tom and Gerri talk to Mary, the weird back and forth between friends who are clearly not on equal footing. One small example of the quite genius of script is in the scenes where people are being welcomed at the door. Whenever you first let someone into your home, even if you are very close, there is always the awkward reintroduction phase where you are forced to babble about this and that until some takes the initiative to suggest moving to another room and more comfortable settings. It is small moments like that which make the script work on the level that it does, and I'm glad the writer's branch of the Academy recognized this and gave Mr. Leigh his deserved nomination.

     As I stated at the outset, I was not expecting to like this film, but was pleasantly surprised. For anyone interested in character studies, this is a must-see, as it is one of the best films the genre has offered up in the last few years. Even for those who are not interested in the nuances of characters though, you will likely find something interesting in at least one of these modern Londoners. Days later, "Another Year" is a film I am still thinking about, which puts it in a select crowd for movies from 2010.

Rating: 9/10


Christopher Lominac