Another Year (2010)

Mike Leigh is one of the few working directors whose films I'm always excited to see. His characters are the kinds of people we all know, but other directors don't bother with. In collaboration with his actors he constructs the story and dialogue, and miracles seem to happen. Miracles of acting and storytelling, they pack a wallop, and his films always linger in the mind. Even his lesser films (Secrets and Lies was overwrought, and Topsy Turvy very overrated) are pretty fantastic. Another Year concerns a happily married couple, together for nearly forty years. Gerri, a therapist (Leigh favorite Ruth Sheen) and Tom, a geologist (Jim Broadbent). Their occupations are not arbitrary; she being a therapist and he making sure the land on proposed building sites is firm and steady. It is essentially about their various friends coming to their home for get-togethers over the course of a year. The friends who keep coming back are the ones who seem to lack what the couple have: real love and stability. Their friend Mary (the incredible Lesley Manville) is the kind of friend who everyone reading this has at least one of. A friend who is always making the wrong decision, always choosing the wrong person to fall in love with, and incapable of breaking the pattern. Her loneliness is monumental. Her behavior starts becoming intolerable as she evolves from good time party girl to middle-aged alcoholic. She wants what this family has, and seems at a loss as to how to get it. Over time, she becomes an imposing dingleberry in their happy home. This is really wonderful stuff, and a lot of things are happening here character-wise. Mike Leigh is one of the most alert directors making films, his understanding of human nature is breathtaking. This is his best film.