Rated R for language
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman
Director: Mike Leigh
We see her only one other time during the course of the movie. It's in a session with the psychologist at the same clinic... a kind-eyed counselor named Gerri (Ruth Sheen). Again, the patient refuses to discuss the details of her personal life. She doesn't seem angry. There's no passion in her face. No fury. No vitriolic reactions to her environment. Instead, her eyes gently shift back and forth... as though seeking a portal of escape from the darkness within. She leaves the session, and we never see her again.
We do, however, see another character just like her in the film. A major character. She's the counselor's assistant at the clinic. Her name is Mary (Lesley Manville). Mary doesn't reach the same level of depression as the earlier patient until the movie's conclusion. We don't draw the parallels between the two characters until the film's final shot.
The aforementioned parallel is the kind of character observation that seems to dot the cinematic landscape of director Mike Leigh. One can describe "Another Year" as a movie where barely anything happens. That appears to be the way Leigh likes it. He's more interested in following where his characters end up as opposed to dictating their fates. It's safe to say this movie isn't for everyone.
Leigh is so enamored with the idea of letting his characters dictate the narrative direction that he doesn't really designate a lead. Mary emerges as the dominant character, but the story begins by centering around the uniquely happy marriage of the counselor Gerri and her engineer husband, Tom (Jim Broadbent). They are nearing their retirement, and have one of those rare, comfortable, happy unions. The story takes place during the course of a year, as we follow various interactions between the couple and their closest ties. Friends and family. All trudging through their own marshes of pain and insecurity.
We meet their son, Joe (Oliver Maltman). A seemingly well-adjusted young man though taking his sweet time in finding someone to share his life with. We're also introduced to Tom's best friend, Ken (Peter Wight) who we're told was a strong, handsome young man in his youth, but is now constantly nursing an alcoholic beverage while lamenting over the cruel ticking of life's clock. He can't bear the thought of being his age and single. The desperation drips from his face. Later in the story we meet Tom's brother, Ronnie (David Bradley) who has recently lost his wife.
And then there's Mary. A towering inferno of insecurity, Mary feels the need to fill any silence with an endless spillage of banal observations... anything to avoid the horrific possibility that those in her field of gravity will judge her. She finds herself attracted to Joe, and is deeply hurt to discover he has recently taken up with a lovely, high-spirited young woman named Katie (Karina Fernandez). Her negative reaction toward Katie is blatant and coarse. Mary keeps getting her name wrong and dismisses her input with glib remarks, until we realize that she's not jealous of Katie because of her relationship with Joe. She's jealous of Katie for the same reason she's jealous of just about everybody... because they're happy and she's not.
A character-actor of unmatched talent, Lesley Manville is skilled at making Mary's bad luck the result of her own self-loathing. We never really sympathize with her. She's too self-destructive. Consider the way she responds to Ken's romantic overtures toward her. Ken being equally desperate, his puppy-dog facial expressions would wear on the nerves of even the most patient of women. Yet her disgust is delivered in such a gratuitously over-the-top manner. Repulsion is, after all, a self-hating sentiment, regardless of the direction in which it is aimed.
What makes films like this interesting is not knowing where the story will end up. In a sense, it doesn't really end so much as lead back to the beginning. You could say Mary and the depressed woman at the outset are, in a figurative sense, the same person. Mary reminds me of the goofy driving instructor in Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky". Mike Leigh gives resonance to characters that, in other movies, would qualify as little more than quirky narrative set-pieces that give a story color. I like the fact that Leigh is invested in those types of characters. It's rare for a movie to focus their attention on such individuals.
It bears repeating that this movie isn't for everyone. It's quite modest. Deliberately-paced. The film quietly takes in its narrative elements. Like the title suggests, it's merely an observation into the lives of people we know, or could know. Or could love. Or could be. If you're seeking an escape from day-to-day humdrum, look elsewhere. But as one who struggles daily with life's predicaments, this film resonates like few can.
* * * 1/2 out of * * * * stars
