[Viennale.]

Another Year is the newest film by Mike Leigh*, starring Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Oliver Maltman and Imelda Staunton.

Plot:
Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) are a happily married couple in their mid-sixties. Their lives revolve around their work, their allotment garden, their son Joe (Oliver Maltman) and their friends who come to visit. Most notably there’s Mary (Lesley Manville), who never really found her place in life, instead hops from man to man and now that she’s older can’t really handle the fact that men’s interest is waning.

Another Year is an excellent film. Extremely warm and compassionate and at the same time, it doesn’t flinch from the casual cruelty of everyday life. The cast is glorious and it really is a wonderful piece of cinema.

I have to say, the buzz before the film revolved mostly around Jim Broadbent. Who was great in the movie, no doubt about it. As was Ruth Sheen. Their relationship was so tangible, it almost was a character on its own, and definitely the thing that really set the mood for the whole movie.

And Imelda Staunton in her short cameo was awesome, too.

But the real star of the film is Lesley Manville. Her Mary is in turns annoying, pathetic and ridiculous, yet at the same time completely heart-wrenching. You know that she’s behaving mostly like a sullen teenager and you want to slap her for it – and in the next moment you want to hug her and tell her that everything’s going to be fine.

Mike Leigh tells a wonderful story just by showing a slice of life of an ordinary couple. He really has a gift for distilling stories from everyday life and Another Year is no different.

Centerpiece to that are of course the characters which – apart from the stellar performances – are well drawn and have great dialogues.

And there was also some wonderful light-work: The movie was always a little warmer lit when Tom and Gerri were home.

Summarising: Wonderful and not to be missed.

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*He was most charming in the audience talk afterwards. It’s really good when people are able to handle sucky questions in a nice way and to give intelligent answers at the same time.