Thin Man Films, Film4, Focus Features International (FFI)
Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Oliver Maltman, Peter Wright, David Bradley, Martin Savage, Karina Fernandez, Michele Austin, Philip Davis, Imelda Staunton
Another year is the story of a happily married elderly couple, medical counselor Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and her geologist husband, Tom (Jim Broadbent), over the period of a year. Broken up into chapters Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, this is a view of their interactions with friends and family throughout a single year. Most everyone, other than Tom and Gerri, are very unhappy, and the message of the film seems to be that we are responsible for our own happiness. We peep in on them through happy times, arguments, birth, and death. It’s a year in the life of ordinary people, nothing more, nothing less.
This movie will bore the hell out of many people. It’s a character story and there isn’t much in the way of action. There are long scenes full of conversations. The characters are developed and through watching them, we learn their fears and shortcomings and the reasons for why they are not happy. But there is no real message nor is there a point. This is very similar to the 1981 film The Four Seasons starring Alan Alda and Carol Burnett. It’s the same type of story, four couples who meet once each quarter for a get together or vacation of some sort. This is very, very slow in the beginning, but as it goes on and you get to know the characters better you do start to care a bit about them. If you’re the kind of person who likes indie style character based films, this is probably your cup of tea, but be forewarned that it’s quite boring at the start. If you have the inclination to stick with it, it does get better in the end.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
