Mike Leigh’s latest film feels cruel and is uncomfortable to watch which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — you can’t expect cinema to offer only comfort and warmth, my dears; cinema is not like the lobby of a country-house hotel — but it does make it a rather horrible experience.
Mike Leigh’s latest film feels cruel and is uncomfortable to watch which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — you can’t expect cinema to offer only comfort and warmth, my dears; cinema is not like the lobby of a country-house hotel — but it does make it a rather horrible experience. I did not enjoy Another Year although, as that may be its point, this does not mean it failed to achieve what it set out to achieve, if it set out to achieve anything. I’m just letting you know what to expect, that’s all, and it is certainly a richer, more complex film than, say, his last one, Happy-Go-Lucky, which didn’t seem to add up to much more than an irritating woman taking driving lessons.
Here, Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play Tom and Gerri — Tom and Gerri? Any cat-and-mouse significance? Couldn’t see it — who are a most happily married couple in their sixties. Tom is a geological engineer. Gerri is a counsellor who works alongside a GP practice. They have an allotment which they tend lovingly, as they do each other. She gives him hugs from behind while he is cooking. He puts his arm around her when she rests her head on his chest in bed. We are meant, I think, to find them touching rather than smug but, still, there were times when I did want to punch them in the face, perhaps when they were least expecting it; perhaps when they were harvesting their courgettes.
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