By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent | Lesley Manville | Oliver Maltman | Peter Wight | Ruth Sheen
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2011
Running time: 129
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431181/
Ibad says: “ANOTHER YEAR is the latest offering from Mike Leigh and among the most emotionally affecting films of the year. The film, among other things, studies age and its various consequences and connotations. Among his illustrious string of performance pieces, ANOTHER YEAR offers the very best performances in any Leigh film thus far and adds Lesley Manville’s role as Mary to a competitive list of cinema’s very best drunkard performances. The other two central performances of JimcBroadbent’s Tom and Ruth Sheen’s Gerri give off a magnificent parental warmth and naturally convinces you of their forty years together. But it’s cManville, especially at the end, who ends up shattering your heart. It’s also among the most visually sophisticated and cinematic of Leigh’s films, showing each of the four seasons with a different tone and feel appropriate to that time of the year. ANOTHER YEAR is magnificent. 4 1/2 cats”
Michael says: “Mike Leigh is a master of constructing a film around everyday life. In his latest film, ANOTHER YEAR, Leigh gives us just that, another year in the life of a loving couple, Tom and Gerri, who have been together for forty years. The film touches down once each season, beginning in the spring and wrapping through the year. There’s a birth, a death, and lots of examples of life in between. In addition to Tom and Gerri, we meet their son John, perpetually single and rather close-lipped about his relationships, Jack, an old friend who eats, drinks and smokes to excess, Ronny, Tom’s older brother, who suffers a devastating loss, and most notably, Mary, Gerri’s friend and co-worker, hyperactive, lonely, and a bit of a drinker. Tom and Gerri are smart, successful, happy, caring, environmentally aware… basically pretty perfect and pretty ordinary at the same time. They are the solid family unit around which everyone else revolves. Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen are terrific in these roles. But the real standout performance comes from Lesley Manville’s erratic and frantic Mary. Funny, tragic, and emotionally shattering, Manville’s performance will alternately make you tear your hair out in frustration, laugh at her hyper antics, and will tear your heart out with her desperation and loneliness.
“Visually lovely, and filled with the expected strong performances, Leigh delivers yet another film about the little things that feel so important as the credits roll. 4 1/2 cats”
Julie says: “Just finished this film and I think Michael did a great job in reviewing it – there’s a little more going on here than he reveals- but to say anymore would give things away. While all performances were strong, I do agree that Manville was the standout and will surely get some recognition for her performance. Well worth seeing. 4 1/2 cats”