Another Year (2010)

You won't be disappointed!

the audience applauded

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I'm not giving this a 10 rating for a couple of reasons. With all due respect, I love Mike Leigh's work and Another Year is a great flick, without a doubt. Realistic, about lonely, desperate, hurting people and on the other side of the spectrum, it's about a well-educated, seemingly happy, financially-sound couple who entertain a lot and never lacked for WINE and BEER in their household.I have a few gripes to mention and then I'll get off my soap box and go on with my life! Imelda Staunton's character met with her female doctor and outright told her she was not sleeping well. Now this female doctor obviously asked the usual questions, are you depressed, how is 'husband', etc., any changes in your life! Yea, there are changes in my life, doc! I'm going through the change! Then the doc proceeds to tell this poor woman she needed to see a counselor, knowing that Janet was in her menopause! Say what? Give me a break! Does the word Menopause mean anything to these dense doctors! Sleep was good before my menopause but as soon as it hit me, I had trouble sleeping as well and told my doctor thus and she in turn told me that I may need counseling and that it could all be in my head. Needless to say, I dropped her like a hotcake, and found another doctor who said it was just that, menopause/hormonal. But here is poor Janet pleading to this doctor, "I can't sleep. I need you to give me something for that, doc!" Nothing can be more annoying or depressing then to be told that it's all in your head! Then it's time to find another doctor! Needless to say, Ms. Staunton portrayed that character extremely well! And her counseling session with Gerri, sad as it may have been, was rather comical in a way as well.Then we have Ruth Sheen's character--Gerri, who is seemingly kind and loving and caring and invites Mary to her home for dinner or BBQ each season to tell her, long story short, that she needs independent professional help. Yes, Mary, a woman most likely in her 40's, single who is annoying at times, a dreamer, desperate, lonely, depressed but the last thing she wanted to hear is that she is accountable for her own actions. How self-righteous can one be! Have another glass of wine, Mary! Plus Gerri often rolled her eyes to others when Mary was around. Why bother inviting the poor woman if you feel that way? I just felt Gerri just tolerated Mary. However, Mary was indeed extremely needy and clung to her like a leech. I didn't like the fact that toward the end Mary took liberties in Tom and Gerri's household by assuming that they would not notice the cigarette smell in their home. And, too, dropping by their home soon after the funeral without letting them know in advance that she was coming. Tom and Gerri have one son, Joe, who is what they called, a dark horse--single, in his 30's but does finally get a girlfriend, who is a 'happy-go-lucky', pun intended, friendly chick and a vegan at that! LOL!Gerri had invited Mary to dinner one day and once there they offered her some wine, which was no lack thereof in that household, I can tell you that! Mary was encouraged by her to spend the night as she drank herself into a stupor and was not fit to travel home. Very wise on Gerri's part.Ken, a middle-aged, single man who is Tom and Gerri's close friend, is another lonely, desperate, depressed soul who is invited I believe for the weekend this time--food and lots of drink once again! I swear they drank so much wine at one sitting, more than I ever drink in a year's time! But food and drink was plentiful. I did love the ambiance and coziness of their home; and the fact that they had an allotment garden that they tended until harvest time. Then you have Tom's deadbeat brother, Ronnie, who I found to be a cold fish and a selfish man. I gathered that he really didn't love his wife, who had just passed on. He had a son, Carl, who hardly visited him,(and who always wore black even as a kid); a bitter, rebellious, aggressive, discontented man who did not get along with his father, and tried to avoid him as much as possible.I was quite impressed with the characters and how they were portrayed by these exceptional actors. The camera shots were exceptional. Mr. Leigh is well-known for capturing an actor's every expression to perfection.The ending was rather a sad one. I shudder to think, though, that Mary and Ronnie could ever be a twosome!There you have it!

Mike Leigh is among the best filmmakers working today, and he's crafted a little hide out of actors and audiences who continuously return to his work knowing that whatever it is that he's making will be top dog. Another Year stands along with his best films, if they could even be quantified - he's made so many great pictures that you lose count going over his filmography. In a way he reminds me of a British version of Robert Altman (though perhaps more dour); he has a wonderful way with words, and allows actors the freedom to explore their character's internal corners. Best of all, his films reflect life as it is - without judgment, without criticism; he wants us to feel them, and makes us empathize with even his most vile characters almost unconditionally. Another Year is among his most tranquil films, a reflection of life passing, and Tom and Gerri are among his most understanding, quiet characters - they listen, understand, and make peace when things are turbulent. Don't we all wish we had friends like that?

British director Mike Leigh invites us on a journey through life itself through his film Another Year (2010), winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury-Special Mention at Cannes.Narrated in a linear fashion, the film tells what happens during a year in the life of a happy couple living in north London, as well as what happens with some of his relatives and friends. The story is divided into four chapters, each represented by one season.It is a tender and simple plot, which deals with the inevitable cycle of years, how life happens and we sailed through it.Throughout history we see the characters face loneliness, compassion, and the pursuit of love and happiness in daily life. The situations they face are merely ordinary and they have nothing out of the ordinary, which helps to generate empathy with the audience, because the audience can easily identify with what they see on screen, and the anguish of the characters before which they live.It's a film that becomes a mirror of everyday life, but offers different views and ways of seeing things, because each character is different. Presents comedy situations, but never loses the seriousness of what counts.It's a good script, developed from the characters (well played) which is common in the style of Leigh, and works because it gives that naturalness, fluidity and richness to the story, which make them unique to each of his films.Mike Leigh tells us what happens for a year in the life of the characters, and is a year where we see the characters change (for better or worse) and is a year that does not end all that happens. It's a film that touches deep issues and leaves the viewer thinking about everything that can happen in just one year of his life.

Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh's 10th film from 2008, was a surprising shift in tone for the now 67-year-old Salford-born director. Rather than bleakly dwelling on life's waifs, strays and ne'er-do-wells, it featured a group of well-adjusted and attractive young women cheerily getting on with living and working in north London. In many ways, it was the anti- Mike Leigh, Mike Leigh film, but it still polarised opinion, as most of his films tend to do.Many women found Happy-Go-Lucky's lead character, Pauline 'Poppy' Cross (Sally Hawkins), teeth-gratingly chirpy and thought she gave an unflattering portrayal of a modern, 30-year-old woman. Men, on other hand, tended to be charmed by her wit and warmth. And, let's be honest, many guys fell for Hawkins' watermelon grin and tractor-beam charisma. After the international success of Happy-Go-Lucky (Hawkins received a Golden Globe) and the glowing notices for Mike Leigh's 2004 film, Vera Drake, anticipations are high ahead of this Friday's UK premiere of Leigh's latest offering, Another Year. Although it didn't win the Palme d'Or, Another Year was still one of the most talked about movies at this year's Cannes film festival.Anyone expecting the light (though hardly lightweight) touch of Happy- Go-Lucky could be a tad disappointed. Another Year returns to familiar Leigh territory: gut-wrenching sorrow, frustrated lives, claustrophobic social tensions and excruciating embarrassments. It's all highly watchable rather than unbearable thanks to the compassion Leigh generates for his dysfunctional protagonists, as well as the regular flashes of brilliant, caustic wit. In fact, Another Year features some of Leigh's funniest and most memorable lines since Mean Time or Career Girls.Tom's life-long pal Ken, though, is an altogether lost soul. He makes half-hearted attempts to chat up Mary at Tom and Gerri's summer barbecue, but isn't quite deluded enough to think he stands a chance. A heavy drinker, smoker and eater, any traces of handsomeness have been erased along with his personal hygiene or any pretence to a decent wardrobe. He bemoans how rubbish pubs have become in his native Hull, all redesigned to 'exclude old people like me', and his social networks have closed down one-by-one through friends emigrating or dying. He carries on working for the local council when he could easily retire because he doesn't have anything else to occupy his time. Isolation and loneliness have often hit people late in life, but Leigh is showing how the collapse of any public life in the provinces is making this unfortunate situation more likely for more people.It would be easy, and wrong, to see Tom and Gerri – yes, this awful gag is deliberately played upon from time to time – as a smug couple lording it over their unfortunate friends. Yes, they're allotment-loving greens who fret about climate change, but in lots of ways they don't conform to an easy liberal-leftie stereotype. The couple, like the hapless Ken, benefited from grammar schools and universities worth their name in the late Sixties. They're the first of their respective families to go to university and, as we see from Tom's wider family in Hull, are from unremarkable backgrounds. As Gerri remarks to Tom early in the film, 'we're lucky really', and it's this grounded awareness that informs their compassion, patience and loyalty to their sometimes-trying friends.So would Mary be happier if she found a decent man? It would no doubt help, but it seems her real discontent is rooted in doing a badly paid and unfulfilling clerical job, unable to afford a decent flat or go on holiday. In a fantastic dig at environmentalists, Mary rationalises her poverty through the prism of green thinking: 'I'm the most environmentally friendly person here', she says. 'I don't drive, I don't consume much, I live in a small flat and I don't fly abroad.'In an earlier scene, too, one of Gerri's patients, Janet (Imelda Staunton), responds to the question 'what would make you happy?' with 'how about a new life?' and rightly can't see what a weekly therapy session would do to change that. Nonetheless, Janet is deprived of sleeping pills from a medical doctor until she agrees to weekly psychological probings by Gerri. Gerri's psychobabble also works against her better instincts, as when she falls out with Mary and, rather than work through the squabble as long-time friends should, she coldly advises Mary to 'seek independent professional advice'. Leigh's disdain for the 'happiness agenda', quack therapy and environmentalism is a sly delight throughout the film.At the question-and-answer session that followed the preview screening I attended, Leigh unashamedly said how much he enjoys film-making at the moment. Certainly, his output over the past decade has seen him grow as a director with each new release. Another Year is a beautifully shot, deeply humane and – even by Leigh's standards – minutely observed portrait of the dynamics of life-long friendships. What gives this snapshot an absorbing quality are the unexplained back stories and unspoken hostilities that are palpable amongst the main protagonists. It's a film that keeps you searching for answers long after the credits have rolled.