Another Year (2010)

United Kingdom, 2010
Directed by Mike Leigh 

Watching Another Year, I was reminded of certain people in my own family. They have a stable home. They love their children. They are involved in their community. Many of their friends, while lovely people in their own right, have not been so fortunate in their life's journey. Their family lives are stressful, they are anxious or insecure, they have debilitating financial or health issues. My relatives always extend welcome to them. Their doors are open, ready with a meal or a listening ear. They may grow exasperated with their friends' messy behavior, but their friendship is consistent and loving. They offer a peaceful space where their friends can be accepted unconditionally.

Mike Leigh's Another Year centers around one such couple: Tom and Gerri Hupple. The film drifts in and out of one year of their life - as they work (as an engineering geologist and therapist), tend to their garden, and spend time with their family members and friends, some of whom are terribly unhappy. There is no real plot to speak of, just observations as they go about their day to day lives. British filmmaker Mike Leigh is renowned for these kinds of meandering character studies. Leigh's approach to filmmaking is not entirely traditional. He begins with a premise, and basic ideas about characters. He then meets with his actors weeks before filming starts, and together they embark on a collaborative process of improvising and developing full personalities and backstories, and creating the flow of the story from there. In Mike Leigh's films, storytelling emerges from character, instead of characters being bent to the predetermined beats of a plot. The lengthy rehearsal process shows in the results. In Another Year, the weight of untold personal histories is felt in how these people dress, how they walk, how they interact. And the acting is uniformly terrific, even the smallest roles are played with subtle detail and depth. It is rare and revelatory to find a director and his actors work in such perfect unison.

It is equally rare and encouraging to see a good, healthy marriage in a film. Tom and Gerri Hupple are a long-time couple still very much in love. Their marriage is not idealized or perfect, but they have reached a place of peaceful, tender equilibrium with the other. It's hard to imagine them separately. They are good at their jobs. They are intelligent and compassionate. They have established healthy routines. They are growing old, but are content. Watching them garden, cook, drink tea and read together is endearing. I particularly fell in love with Gerri, played by the luminous Ruth Sheen. With her calm demeanor, sincere smile, and bright clothing, she is a source of warmth for everyone she meets, even the most difficult people.

Tom and Gerri's old friend Ken used to be happy, but those days are long gone. He comes to visit them in London. Many of his friends have passed away. He lives alone, has become obese and an alcoholic. He hates his job but does not quit, because other than work his life is a void. Tom offers a small helping hand but Ken dejectedly does not accept, perhaps out of embarrassment or self-hatred. There is only so much a friend can do. Gerri and Mary have been co-workers and friends for twenty years. After a divorce that ruined her financially, and a disastrous affair with a married man that ruined her emotionally, Mary is a nervous wreck. She too is an alcoholic, but clearly in denial. Every time that she smokes a cigarette, which is fairly often, she anxiously explains that she doesn't usually smoke and is trying to quit. Her desperate loneliness is tragically obvious and leads her into embarrassment, like when she unsubtly hits on Tom and Gerri's 30 year old son. Mary is the kind of person most people avoid like the plague, as she is incredibly irritating and draining to be around, but as played by a fearless Lesley Manville, she is impossible to hate. Her pain seems so real and raw that you want to reach through the screen and comfort her.

Another Year is about the unequal distribution of happiness. Why is it that some are so blessed to live fulfilling lives into old age, while others fall into despair and neglect, or never had happiness to begin with? Why are some blessed with the support of a loving spouse and children, while others are betrayed by those closest to them and have no one to care for? Personal choices and responsibility absolutely play a large part, but that cannot be the entirety of it. Those who have more must give of themselves, freely and without expecting anything in turn, to those who have less. After all, any one of us could be, or has been, in a similarly unfortunate position. We need to have understanding and patience with those less fortunate than ourselves. Another Year illustrates the need for hospitality. It is a comforting film for its lovely portrait of Tom and Gerri, but also a heartbreaking film for its refusal to sugarcoat the misery of others. It offers no easy solutions, just presents a bleak reality - but neither does it suggest that Ken or Mary are beyond hope.