Another Year

Film Review by Jamie Dunn | 29 Oct 2010
Film title: Another Year
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman, David Bradley, Imelda Staunton
Release date: 5 Nov
Certificate: 12A

For four decades Mike Leigh has been exploring, with a mischievous relish, the lives and loves of the inhabitants of London’s urban sprawl. His latest centres on Tom and Gerri (Broadbent and Sheen), a sweet – if slightly smug – middle-aged couple who are utterly content with their ageing bodies and days spent pottering on their allotment. But their happiness hasn’t rubbed off on the pathetic souls who enviously bask in their bonhomie, such as Gerri’s work colleague Mary (Manville), a lonely mutton-dressed-as-lamb lush who’s growing more desperate for companionship by the day. But not desperate enough to consider Tom’s unattached childhood chum Ken (Wight), a walking ball of cholesterol who inhales cans of John Smith's like most people consume oxygen. Told over four acts (one for each season), Leigh and his note perfect cast have crafted a bitterly funny tale of sadness and frustration, where life, contrary to what Leigh’s earlier film titles suggest, is rarely sweet or happy-go-lucky. [Jamie Dunn]