Monday, March 14, 2011

ANOTHER YEAR

“ANOTHER YEAR” (Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen & Lesley Manville)

A British ‘Dramedy’, this film tells the tale of a year in the life of an elderly couple, Tom & Gerri (Jim Broadbent & Ruth Sheen)
‘Another Year’ is a character driven story that goes absolutely nowhere.
Tom has a rather boring job testing the ground for construction sites. Gerri’s job as a hospital therapist is somewhat more interesting, but after the opening scenes, it is never brought into the script again – which was also frustrating because Imelda Staunton appears in the first two scenes explaining how she is unable to sleep. Several reasons are given as to why this is happening but her character’s dilemma is never resolved – in fact her character exits the film after appearing to be the main focus of the story.
Tom and Gerri have a son, Joe (Oliver Maltman) Joe is a nice guy in his early thirties. Joe rides his bike a lot. Joe is dull.
Gerri has a man-hungry spinster friend named Mary. Now, Mary is clearly the most interesting character and actress Lesley Manville gives an impressive performance, but we soon discover that Mary is a pathetic drunk. Mary shuns the advances of Tom’s friend Ken (Peter Wight), an overweight, closer to her own age drunk in hopes that half her age, not all that slobby looking Joe will look upon her as girlfriend material instead ‘drunk old (psuedo) Aunt Mary.’ Joe is polite towards Mary basically out of pity, but Mary doesn’t ‘get’ it.
‘Another Year’ is divided up into four segments, Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter.
I’m sure I’m not the only one in the audience that was hoping that it started with Winter and that Autumn would be the last season, but no, this uneventful story plods on & on with the audience sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for something interesting, unusual or strange to happen to these people.
Mary drops by unexpectedly when Tom & Gerri are out and Tom’s recently widowed brother Ronny (David Bradley) lets her inside. I thought, ‘OK, this is it – This is what all the boredom has been leading to – either Ronny is going to snap (due to grief) because Mary starts flirting with him and kill her; or Mary is going to snap & rape Ronny. Either way, I felt sure that something dramatically weird was going to happen... finally!
I can’t say I was disappointed when the screen went black because, at least, we were all put out of our misery. Still, I felt cheated by the fact that NOTHING out of the ordinary happens to these people. In fact, I started thinking of better titles for the movie & the one I came up with was, “Another Year In The Lives Of Ordinary People Having Ordinary Conversations About Their Ordinary Lives” . . . Ordinarily, I’d avoid a film with that title. So I guess that’s why they just cut if off at ‘Another Year’. But that’s ALL it is, ‘JUST’ another year in the life of a likable older couple & their uninteresting friends and relatives. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good character study – but in order to make characters come alive, something interesting has to happen to them and NOTHING INTERESTING happens to these nice people. They simply sit around and talk about food, the weather, driving a car versus taking public transportation and how dull their lives are... Oh, and wine – Lots & Lots & Lots of wine! It seemed like in every season there was an elongated scene involving the discussion of what each character felt like drinking;
“Tea, Mary? Or perhaps a spot of Chablis?” “Feel like a cup of coffee, Ken? We also have beer and wine.” “What are you drinking today, Ronny; how about a glass of Chardonnay?”
The female members of our party got off easy – they both fell asleep. While Alan Smithee (Who has come to his senses and is back to agreeing with me) & I kept our eyes glued to the screen, begging for a morsel of memorable dialogue, only to be rebuked by this Oscar nominated script for best original screenplay time & time again. And it wasn’t easy to keep your eyes on the screen at the luxurious Grand Theatre in Tacoma, since every time someone got up to use the bathroom, the screen would turn completely white when they opened the door (& when they returned!)
The label ‘dramedy’ is a misnomer here since there isn’t any dramatic moments and the comedic bits were a limited number of titters and maybe a chuckle or two.
When ‘Inception’ finally ended, I was of the opinion that the audience agreed with me that is was a boring piece of feces since no one left the theatre showing any kind of pleasure. As the crowd exited ‘Another Year’one man said to another, “I liked the first hour fine, but I found the last three to be quite boring.”
It isn't crap, like 'Inception'; the film is nicely acted, but dull. Even the drunks are friendly, but dull. And it seemed to have a running time of infinity. Once again, the viewing audience (& Alan Smithee) agrees with me.
All is right with the world.

8 comments:

Alan Smithee said...

I agree with Terry, except that the theater is named the "Grand Cinema" because, we all know, cinema is better than films or movies. And ... relative to Tacoma, the theater IS grand!

Nyuk!

I cannot believe the script got a nomination. The dialog sparkled at points, but, as a whole, the script went nowhere -- as Terry disclosed.

The film -- er, that is, cinema -- was handsomely shot, so the frames were pleasant to look at. As with the script, however, the parts do not make a pleasing whole.

Lesley Manville was terrific, as were some other actors. Once again, parts < whole.

What Terry said!

Terry R said...

Grand 'Cinema', you say...
Another misnomer.
Nyuk, nyuk, indeed!

movie luva said...

I thought it was a pretty decent film. I guess it might matter what head space you are in when you enter the theater. I happen to like Manville, Sheen and Broadbent, so maybe I'm a tad biased. Plus I like most Mike Leigh films. But what do I know ?

Terry R said...

Movie luva makes it hard to argue even when I profoundly disagree with her - Head space matters.
I usually say that about silly comedies; sometimes you're just in the mood to laugh & sometimes you need the material to force it out of you, but it's hard to fathom anyone's head being in the correct space to enjoy 'Another Year'.
It wasn't unlikable, just dull.
I only knew Broadbent from the cast (& Staunton, but she turned out to be insignificant here)
& I had to llok up Mike Leigh to see if he'd ever made anything I liked . . . no, he has not.
In fact, it said he makes his films sans scripts - he simply tells his actors what their characters feel as he sets each scenes & then they improvise...
So how did 'Another Year' garner a Best Original Screenplay Nomination?
When I read that the actors more or less made up their own lines, it all made sense to me. I believe it was Sean Penn who once said, "actors are boring people that need to have someone else write something interesting for them to say." (or was it Steve Allen? Smock! Smock!)
I believe the actors in 'Another Year' were similar to their characters - nice people. Nice, dull, boring people... Who like to drink a lot of wine on the set!
& m.l., please don't say 'what do I know?' If there's one thing I want readers of this blog to know is that their opinions matter.
Not to me, of course, but I'm sure someone out there cares...

Anonymous said...

I liked Happy Go Lucky and Vera Drake. Mike Leigh does write his own scripts but he allows the actors to improvise if he feels it can better a scene or they are more comfortable doing it a different way. Different strokes.

I like UK films and many of their actors as well, so like I said, I'm probably biased.

movie luva said...

BTW- that was me. Forgot to sign my name :)

Terry R said...

The U.K. kicks our butts in musicians, but I'm not going to hand them best actors as well. They have their fair share of good ones as well as over-rated hams.
I cheered when 'The King's Speech' won best picture because that was an intelligent, humorous & touching story. 'Another Year' is semi-intelligent (I mean, let's face it almost everyone in it is an alcoholic) mildly amusing & has an air of grace to it along with the Lesley Manville character, Mary to sympathize with but its 2 hours too long and rather boring almost from start to finish. Nothing dramatic happens.
& just to rest my case that British actors don't outshine American actors; Harry Potter movies.

dbm said...

I know I'm coming to the party rather late, but I happen to think of Jim Broadbent a fine thespian. A true chamelon, so much he's been in movies many have seen but most likely didn't recognize him.
He won best supporting actor Oscar for his role as Judi Dench husband in Iris. He did a good job as corrupt Boss Tweed in Gangs Of NY. He's also played King William in The Young Victoria, Fenoglio in Inkheart, Inspector Frank in Hot Fuzz, and Renee Zelwegger's dad in The Bridget Jones series. He's currently filming and playing the role of Denis Thatcher in The Iron Lady opposite Meryl Streep as Margret Thatcher.