What a challenge it must be to mine our ordinary lives in ways that reveal and revel in the quietly meaningful.
It is a challenge British writer-director Mike Leigh meets in “Another Year” as he taps the rich vein of a working marriage with bemused grace.
Longtime Leigh performers Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen are Tom and Gerri. He is an amiable geologist. She is a medical counselor. They have a grown son named Joe (Oliver Maltman), who works as a public lawyer.
The very title gets at the rhythms of adulthood. Sure, life presents surprises, grand and personal, tragic and joyous. This film isn’t shaped by those. Instead, the story unfolds in seasons, beginning with spring, as Gerri and Tom work their little patch of garden, or “allotment.”
The couple have an enviable routine. There are dinners at home. There are glasses of wine and talk of the day. There are memories of adventure and thoughts about Joe.
Gerri and Tom are the fixed orb around which the less-stable bodies track. There is Tom’s childhood friend, Ken (Peter Wight), who visits one summer’s day. He’s kind, but lonesome. A more constant guest is emotionally wobbly Mary.
Lesley Manville won the National Board of Review’s best actress kudos in December for her portrayal of Gerri’s co-worker and sort-of friend. Manville creates a character who vibrates with need, self-doubt and faux optimism. We start out getting a kick out of her. Yet she can’t quite help wearing out her welcome.
“Another Year” begins with a set-piece that shows how nimble Leigh and his ensembles can be. A woman has come to Gerri’s clinic. She wants sleeping pills but must talk about her anxiety if she hopes to get any. She is not happy about that therapeutic bargain.
Imelda Staunton (another Leigh mainstay) captures Janet’s resentment and exhaustion. Her passive duel of wills with the intake specialist is a potent bit of acting, both part of, and apart from, what follows.
And “Another Year” is full of ouchy and awkward encounters. When Tom, Gerri and Joe travel to a funeral, Tom’s nephew Carl (Martin Savage) goes ballistic in a way that reminds us all how flailing anger can be. When Joe finally brings home a girlfriend, Katie (played by a very game and funny Karina Fernandez), Mary does more than sulk.
Through the many moods, Gerri and Tom remain believably wise. It’s tempting to describe them as being above the fray when what they are is so wonderfully grounded.
“ANOTHER YEAR.”
PG-13 for some language. 2 hours, 9 minutes. Written and directed by Mike Leigh; photography by Dick Pope; starring Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman. Opens today at the Chez Artiste.
