If Bridget Jones taught us anything, it’s that all Thai prisoners want is Galaxy bars and Wonderbras. Oh, and that smug married types are to be avoided at all costs. So how the hell does Mike Leigh manage to take one such smug married couple and make them the most likeable characters of Another Year?
Gerri and Tom (the ever affable Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent) are in their late fifties and spend their days working, tending to their allotment and probing their son about his love life. Their lives are completely unremarkable and blissfully content. Unfortunately, they also seem to be a magnet for every dysfunctional adult in London, who flock to the couple in the hope that their happiness will prove contagious. From the moment the loveable but desperate Mary (Lesley Manville) asks Gerri “How happy would you say you were?”, both the characters and the audience are forced to ask themselves the same thing. And as Tom and Gerri look on as Mary unsuccessfully throws herself at every man available, as Ken (Peter Wight) overeats and drinks his way through his loneliness and as Ronnie (David Bradley) is left almost catatonic after his wife’s death, another unspoken question lingers; “How happy can you be on your own?”
Mike Leigh doesn’t do thrill rides or happily ever afters, and this character-driven drama marks no new territory for the director. But it may just be his best film yet. The ensemble cast are all exemplary, but it’s Manville and Bradley who shine. Though their characters are superficial opposites, they both bring a palpable and heartwrenching sense of isolation to the screen. The final moments of the film, where they sit silently as a dinner party chatters around them, acts as a visual representation of the entire film. Though getting on, the characters know that there’s a fate worse than ageing, and that’s always feeling lonely even when you’re not alone.