Here are the reviews I wrote for the November issue of EL Magazine, which was distributed in Tokyo on Nov. 25. The movies open in Tokyo from late October to mid-November.
Another Year
Much has been made of Mike Leigh’s peculiar method of filmmaking, which has more to do with theater than the movies; especially the way he has his actors develop their characters organically over many months while writing dialogue that suits those characters. Whatever this method produces in terms of “realism” it mostly has the effect of preventing Leigh’s characters from turning into symbols. In his newest movie, the central couple, Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen), have been happily married for almost fifty years. They are fulfilled in their work–he as a geologist, she as a therapist–have raised a well-adjusted son who loves them, and spend their leisure time tending to a vegetable garden allotment in London. There is no conflict in their lives, and the movie is formally episodic, so the dramatic thrust is provided by the people they know, people whose lives of desperation stand in stark contrast to theirs. Of these lonely people, who fans of Leigh’s will realize are something of an obsession with the director, Mary (Leslie Manville) stands out. Mary has worked with Gerri for years, and remains unattached as she enters middle age. She drinks too much and then frets in a dramatic fashion, and Tom and Gerri, who often entertain her at their home, listen and commiserate, sometimes at cross purposes. Some will find the couple patronizing, while others will simply conclude it’s all you can do with someone like Mary. While we may envy the happiness that Tom and Gerri enjoy, we don’t always like them. One of the only real plot lines in the movie, which spans an entire year, is Mary’s crush on Joe, the couple’s lawyer son, who looks upon Mary more as an aunt. When Joe brings home a steady girlfriend whom Tom and Gerri immediately adore, Mary, who happens to have dropped in unannounced, is devastated, though it’s only the audience that realizes this. The couple takes no notice of their friend’s pain, and later, when Gerri finds out about those feelings, she shuts Mary out, though Leigh doesn’t fully explain what actually triggered this resentment. The stilted “compassion” Gerri expresses can’t hide the sudden contempt she feels toward her colleague, and it’s as disturbing to the viewer as it is to Mary. To say this scene gives rise to complex emotions is an understatement: Mary, though sympathetic, is also insufferable. Though Leigh’s process has given rise to criticism that it makes for over-cooked performances–Manville is often just painful to watch–the main difficulty of his films is that they provide too much that’s familiar. If we don’t like his movies or his characters, it’s probably because we recognize in them what it is that we don’t like about ourselves. (photo: Untitled 09 Ltd., UK Film Council, Channel Four TV Corp.) Continue reading
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