British director Mike Leigh is known for making kitchen sink dramas and over the years has had great critical success with Secrets & Lies (1996), Vera Drake (2004) and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). Known for his improvisational style of filmmaking, Leigh rehearses with a group of actors (usually long-time collaborators) over a number of months creating story from his outlined scripts, before filming begins. Not one to shy away from tackling tough themes, Leigh’s work tends to approach topics with subtlety and restraint, never taking the drama over-the-top or to melodramatic extremes. But it is in this gentle teasing of theme that Leigh makes his best observations about life, and Another Year is a fantastic example of the director working at his best.
Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and Tom (Jim Broadbent)
Following a middle-aged couple Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) over four seasons, the film looks at their relationship with friends, colleagues and family. A birth, a death and a new love are all events in the film, but this slow-paced character study is really about happiness and loneliness. The film’s gentleness is deceptive as it draws you into the seemingly mundane lives of the characters. Another Year is divided between the happy; Tom, Gerri and their adult son Joe (Oliver Maltman) and the sad; Gerri’s work colleague, Mary (Lesley Manville), Tom’s friend Ken (Peter Wight) and Tom’s brother Ronnie (David Bradley).
Joe (Oliver Maltman), Mary (Lesley Manville) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen)
Leigh’s film, Happy-Go-Lucky explored similar themes and Poppy (Sally Hawkins) the eternally optimistic central character in that film was dismissed by some viewers as being annoyingly happy. Watching Another Year the same charge could be laid at the feet of the film’s happy characters, and there are moments when their cheerfulness feels smug. But then you have to wonder what that says about you, the viewer, that you find genuinely contented characters grating. It is this mirror that the film holds up to its audience which makes it so clever. Watching the film and its characters’ outlook on life it is impossible not to meditate on your own. Mary’s (Manville) disappointments over the year are increasingly devastating, but at the same time you find yourself desperately hoping that you aren’t also one of life’s losers.
Ken (Peter Wight) and Mary (Lesley Manville)
While the ensemble cast are all impressive, Manville stands out and it is unsurprising that she has been nominated for a best supporting actress BAFTA. She allows Mary to be a character you are both sympathetic towards, but also infuriated by.
Another Year is definitely one of Leigh’s best films, with the apparently ordinary proving to be quietly and subtlety moving.
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First published on Trespass
