Purely Joyful Movie!

Crappy film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Normally I write a movie review immediately after seeing the movie, because it is fresh to recollect the movie. When I was browsing the TV today and saw this movie, I stopped. I remember loving this movie when I had seen for the first time. Then I remembered that I did not write the movie review then. I was myself surprised, and I made it a point to write the review this time. So here it is. The story is beautifully told with passing of four seasons of a year – that is why it is titled ANOTHER YEAR. Tom (Jim Broadbent) a geologist and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) a counselor are older married couple who encounter friends and family with their underlying issues. First one is Mary (Leslie Manville) is a middle-aged divorcée receptionist, heavy alcoholic desperate seeking a new relationship – and eye Tom and Gerri's son Joe (Oliver Maltman) who is much younger - around 30 years old. Second is Ken (Peter Wight), Tom's school friend, who is overweight, a compulsive eater, drinker and smoker. Third is Ronnie (David Bradley) , estranged son of Tom's brother, who arrives late and is angry with everyone for not delaying his mother's funeral ceremony. Through the relationships of these characters, director Mike Leigh beautifully exploits the togetherness and loneliness with warmth, tenderness, kindness, giving, emotional loss, yearnings, and nurturing, growing old together. There are some well executed scenes that resonate with audiences in terms of the assembled cast and crew delivering on the spot improvisation and inventiveness in executing an endearing scene. Mary's drunkenness, Mary's romantic advances towards Joe, Mary's reluctance and rejection of Ken's advances, Mary's hostility towards Joe's girlfriend Katie (Karina Fernandez), Mary's apology to Gerri for her behavior and the last lingering scene where Mary is lost and uncertain on a happy dinner night. It is Mary's under-current role (exit & entry) all the way that weaves this story. It was not a wonder that Leslie Manville won several best actress awards for her brilliant portrayal of this role. A special mention for Director Mike Leigh for writing a script and screenplay that leaves trust and scope for exceptional improvisation to imbibe the flow of scenes and characters. Not many can achieve this finesse. I will go with 7.75 out of 10

This is a low-key but strong drama. We follow four seasons in the lives of the middle-aged married couple Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), their 30-year-old bachelor son Joe and Gerri single colleague Mary (Lesley Manville). A collection meetings and small events showing Leigh's ability to transform the everyday life into something meaningful. The film's strength is in my opinion the strong person characters and the dialogues between the characters. The interpersonal stands in the center, and the film is about the important things in life such as friendship, happiness and having a meaningful life. This film was both touching and engaging. The story allows us to follows a handful of people and their lives through one year. We get to know the main characters, and can take part in their lives, for better or worse. A great movie experience of everyday life and every day people. This film is a winner!

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!

Many, many years ago, as a young single woman, I saw a counselor, who helped me, and who I thought of as a friend. When I married my husband, I invited her to the wedding. She declined, telling me our relationship was professional only. So when, at the end of this movie, the therapist Gerri tells the disturbed Mary, who thought she was a friend of 20 years duration, to see a therapist, I had a different reaction to this movie than many others.This movie, about the happy middle-class couple Tom and Gerri, is more a cautionary tale that "friends" are not the same as family, and that therapy and friendship evidently cannot mix. The therapist Gerri's "friend" Mary is a middle-aged, lonely, depressed co-worker who has been a frequent visitor to Tom and Gerri's home for 20 years. There are jokes that she was an "auntie" to the 30-year-old son, who, in an excruciating episode, she drunkenly hits on. When she encounters the truth that the son has a girlfriend, Mary is "inappropriate" and rude. Even worse, she is revealed as of a lower professional caste from the girlfriend, who rather irritatingly fits in beautifully with the middle-class professions of Tom and Gerri.So Mary is a family "auntie" no longer and we learn in the final segment that she has not seen Gerri for some time outside work since the episode with the girlfriend. When she shows up at the house uninvited, Gerri and Tom are surprised to see her. We see them staring at her through the sitting room door, and I thought the expressions on their faces was so cold and even chilling. These were not the faces of friends who would normally be concerned for a friend who has come to them because of some trouble. This is when I first realized that the friendship of Tom and Gerri for Mary was only an illusion; that to them, Mary was just a person who had drifted into their orbit but who was welcome only when invited. Gerri tells Mary that Mary has "let her down" and that Gerri has had to put family first. She tells Mary that Mary should seek professional therapy for her problems. This speech is delivered in a professional voice. Gerri, who is supposed to be warm and nurturing, is cold to Mary, as cold as she was in her counseling session with Imelda Staunton which starts the movie.At the same time, Tom's brother, Ronnie, who has been widowed, has not been seen at all during the prior year and has not even been mentioned. But he was invited to stay; he is family. In the end, at the final dinner, the camera works its way slowly around the table. The talk among Tom, Gerry, their son Joe and his girlfriend Katie is jovial and cheerful, and, I would think, unbearable for someone who has just days earlier lost his spouse. The camera hits Ronnie, who is still nearly catatonic. And finally the camera focuses on Mary. You see on her face that she has realized that she is not part of the family, she is not the "auntie" nor even really welcome.This movie, I think, is remarkable for eliciting so many responses.