Another Year (2010)

A look at four seasons in the lives of a happily married couple and their relationships with their family and friends.

Director:

Mike Leigh

Writer:

Mike Leigh

Stars:

Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 30 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jim Broadbent	...	Tom
Ruth Sheen	...	Gerri
Lesley Manville	...	Mary
Oliver Maltman	...	Joe
Peter Wight	...	Ken
David Bradley	...	Ronnie
Martin Savage	...	Carl
Karina Fernandez	...	Katie
Michele Austin	...	Tanya
Philip Davis	...	Jack (as Phil Davis)
Imelda Staunton	...	Janet
Stuart McQuarrie	...	Tom's Colleague
Eileen Davies	...	Mourner
Mary Jo Randle	...	Mourner
Ben Roberts	...	Mourner

Storyline

A married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years, are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness.

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Plot Keywords:

friend | four seasons | autumn | unhappiness | tears | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [de]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 November 2010 (UK)

Also Known As:

Another year

Filming Locations:

Battersea Power Station, Battersea, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$111,869 (USA) (31 December 2010)

Gross:

$3,205,244 (USA) (20 May 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Thin Man Films, Film4, Focus Features International (FFI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is dedicated to Mike Leigh's late friend and long-term producing partner Simon Channing Williams.

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Goofs

One of Mary's outlays on her troublesome car was for a new carburettor, but the vehicle in the film had fuel injection.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Tanya: So how long's this been going on for?
Janet: I don't know.
Tanya: A few weeks?
Janet: A long time.
Tanya: A year?
Janet: I Suppose so.
Tanya: A whole year? You've taken your time to come and see me, haven't you?

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Connections

Featured in Mike Leigh & Lesley Manville on Another Year (2010)

User Reviews

Best Actor Academy Award due

Lesley Manville as Mary truly deserves the Best Actor Oscar for her perfectly nuanced, scary and convincing portrayal of a woman on the brink of personal desperation due to her many life mistakes and to her extremely fragile emotional nature that served to spiral her further and further down toward mental illness with every romantic disappointment and life mistake she made. Honestly, I do not think Meryl Streep could have played this role as well. Lesley was that great in it. An astounding performance, and so touching, as you felt every pain Mary felt due to Lesley's spot-on interpretation of her character's neediness and weaknesses and what they cost her.

This film tells a story(by the 4 seasons)of a year in the lives of a UK couple and their friends. Mary is a secretarial co-worker and friend of Gerri, a professional counselor and the sweet wife of her well-rumpled and very likable engineer/geologist husband, Tom(yes, Tom and Gerri). Mary is the woman we all know at some time or another in our lives.... a woman too attractive to always be alone but always is alone after every failed attempt at a relationship, always suffering badly from each failure to find what she wants so badly.

Not much of an intricate plot here, as in all Mike Leigh films, but the story was such an absorbing and typical Mike Leigh take on the day-to-day happenings in the ordinary and everyday lives of a normal UK couple and some at-risk friends. Tom and Gerri were the couple with these friends in various states of decline, and they always tried hard through their gentle patience, understanding and humor to help them and always be there for them. Ruth Sheen and the great Tom Broadbent played the wife/husband roles to perfection, and were so loving, likable and comfortable with each other and with friends that you wished you had them for your own friends. Wonderful portrayals, both.

See this film for engaging personal interaction and for the best acting performance of 2010, but be prepared for your own uncomfortable and awkward feelings throughout due to Mary's many sufferings and how her endless tales of them affected her(long-suffering)friends. It was a truly human story, sometimes warm and funny, sometimes pathetic and difficult to watch, but at the end you knew you had seen acting greatness.