Mike Leigh
Another Year

First of all, people, with their difficulties and hopes. First of all, feelings, the fragility of those who are alone and the strength of those who support their partner.

The relationship between human beings. This is the foundation of Mike Leigh's film.

The twelfth feature film by the British Leigh questions family and interpersonal relationships, revealing the "social" issues of the new millennium that are often left unspoken: existential loneliness, the fear of being alone in the face of a world that is cold and insensitive to human problems. The character that most represents this condition in the film is Mary (an extraordinary Lesley Manville), who, due to the lack of a partner, sinks first into alcohol and then into depression. This problem is shared with Ken (Peter Wight), who is also consumed by alcohol and the painful realization of being alone. In contrast to these figures is the solid couple of Tom and Gerri (played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), who are always happy to welcome all their "unlucky" friends into their home.

Based on the complex "web" relationship that is created among the many characters in his film, Leigh creates a film that completely stands apart from the films that are currently rampant in the distribution melting pot. There is no spectacle like "Inception" and no actor sponsorships like "The King's Speech": Another Year is a small gem born and living in the shadow of the success of the "big" cinematic names competing for the latest Oscars.

Leigh shows a preference for classicism, making a film simple in form. His direction is precise and "facilitated" by the choice to develop the story primarily indoors: ultimately, Another Year is a "theatrical" film in the less spectacular sense of the term. Leigh and his camera serve the actors, most of whom are unknown but perfect in their roles: a demonstration that Leigh knows how to choose well before diving into the "big name" market. Kudos to Lesley Manville, sublime in portraying what is probably the film's most complex character: a woman tormented by her own questions, by the inability to lift herself from a life that, also due to her own doing, has not offered particular highlights. Wine, cigarettes, and tears are the constant elements that fill her days.

What most surprises in Leigh's portrayal is the great ability he has to make actors, story, and screenplay coexist, interweaving perfectly complex themes that are not easy to handle. The screenplay, written by Leigh himself (for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), is perfect in narrating through sharp and sometimes ironic dialogues, the different life visions of the multitude of characters that Another Year presents to us. Many of them continue their existence in the happiness and comfortable tranquility of their own homes, perhaps with the good news of their only child's engagement. Others live forgotten by the world in an anonymous little house, abandoned by a wife and an overly impetuous son.

This is how time operates: another year has passed, but for many, the difficulties remain the same. "Verranno momenti migliori, il tempo è una ruota che gira" wrote the Modena City Ramblers: perhaps yes, but not for everyone...