Two years after the surprise success of "Happy-go-lucky", director Mike Leigh returns with another dramatic comedy. This time the focus is on the lives of an aging couple and those around them.
Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) are a happily married couple. They enjoy spending their time together in the garden, cooking or spending time with loved ones. Their home is a place that exudes harmony and bliss. During the course of a year, it is always a refuge for friends and family members who are not as fortunate as Tom and Gerri. Mary (Lesley Manville), a single co-worker of Gerri's, in particular, is always looking for support here, since her hosts' marriage is exactly what she, too, wants for her completely messed-up life.
With "Another Year", director Mike Leigh treads familiar ground. The mix of drama and comedy works very well in its own right, especially since the two main characters make a really loveable couple. However, as with "Happy-go-Lucky", Leigh again indulges his obvious penchant for completely over-the-top female characters, which could quickly get on the nerves of many a viewer. In the case of "Another Year", while this is not the main character, it is a supporting supporting character. Lesley Manville, as a troubled single woman with a strong penchant for alcohol and Tom and Gerri's son, is a real test of the audience's nerves. Her sometimes minute-long monologues, dominated by self-pity, are just too much of a good thing and, perhaps precisely because of Manville's convincing performance, make life unnecessarily difficult for more than just Tom and Gerri.
Gerri and Tom provide a very pleasant counterpoint to the talkative Mary. Their relationship is really quite wonderfully sketched and finally shows the love of two older people without the usual clichés or put-on ageism. Here, two good-hearted people are simply shown, with whom the viewer also feels comfortable and whose sheer unshakable optimism is simply contagious. However, the fact that the focus is more on the problems of the friends who stop by Gerri and Tom's house, rather than the couple acting as a quasi-healing elixir, is understandable for the course of the story, but not really conducive to de entertainment value.
Also the fact that the doesn't tell a story in the real sense, but just outlines the events of another quite "normal" year in the lives of the protagonists, makes it a bit hard to be well entertained for over two hours and not be overwhelmed by boredom. Sure, the actors are all convincing and the dialogue is brilliantly written at times. But the whole thing isn't really captivating. Thus, the target audience is probably limited to lovers of rather sophisticated, somewhat unwieldy Anglo-Saxon art house cinema. However, they are well served by the wonderful performances and some very nice scenes alone
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
