Very well done and not depressing, this is the story of a couple approaching their 45th anniversary party. Some reviewers want you to know in advance the past issue that pops up. I do not. Charlotte Rampling's first Oscar nomination (Best Actress for playing Kate) is well deserved. We last saw her in the lugubrious movie Melancholia. By no means a comedy, this, in fact, is somewhat of a mystery. As her husband Geoff, Tom Courtenay (most recently blogged for Quartet) is also quite wonderful. He is 78 to Rampling's 70 (her birthday was February 5, the day we saw it) and their characters accept the limitations of their age to varying degrees. One other character I enjoyed was Kate's friend Lena, played by Geraldine James (covered in the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).
This is the third feature directed by Andrew Haigh, who wrote the screenplay based on the short story In Another Country by David Constantine. Cinematographer Lol Crawley (the only one of his projects that I've seen is the mini-series Hastings on Hudson) makes beautiful pictures of the seaside, meadows, and village of Norfolk, England. And, in lieu of an original soundtrack, there's a great number of songs from the 1960s including Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by the Platters.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics average a loving 96% and, though their audiences are more restrained at 74%, Jack and I think you'll like it as much as we did.
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