Review

Review Date: 30-January-11
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Another Year (2010)

Mike Leigh is known for creating slice-of-life movies through an organic process that inspires strong performances from his cast. In his latest picture, Another Year, this naturalistic, character-driven mode of storytelling results in a moving piece of work. The story centers around a couple named Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) who enjoy a comfortable and healthy marriage on the eve of their retirement years. They serve as a point of contrast for the other characters as Leigh illustrates the lamentable fact that while a few people find happiness in this world, a good many others do not.

This theme is introduced in the opening scene in which Gerri provides counseling to a woman who refuses to admit that her insomnia is caused by anger or depression. We never see this woman again or learn the particulars of her despair, but she foreshadows the afflictions of others as set against Gerri's kindness. We then meet Gerri's co-worker Mary (Lesley Manville), a lonely, middle-aged airhead who uses alcohol and forced cheerfulness to combat her misery. During a dinner at Tom and Gerri's house we see how Mary derives both envy and comfort from entering their orbit. As the seasons pass she becomes increasingly despondent, even clinging to an absurd romantic fantasy involving Tom and Gerri's son (Oliver Maltman) whom she has known since he was a child.

Other distraught friends and family swirl around the central couple. In summer Tom's childhood chum (Peter Wight) comes for a weekend, imitating Mary's drunkenness and adding gluttony to his attempt at self-medication against the dread of old age and death. As winter rolls around Tom's sister-in-law dies and he and Gerri invite his taciturn brother to stay with them for a week, leaving Tom's bitter nephew behind. All the while, as everyone else stumbles around in a funk, Tom and Gerri tend their community garden plot, eat good food, drink good wine (in moderation), pursue their careers, and delight in each other's company. For them, the passage of another year is an opportunity to amass more memories to cushion the downward slope of life. For the people who turn to them for solace, another year is 365 more days of mounting confusion and fear. Although Leigh holds out some hope for Mary and the others (none is as rigid or alone as the woman in the opening scene), he does not attempt to explain or deny these differences in experience. He shows with bittersweet compassion that on the sea of life some people find warm currents while others flail and drown.

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