Another Year 05/25 Blu-ray (Rental)

Product Description Over the course of an eventful year, a long-married couple brightens the lives of their family and friends through a winning combination of love, wisdom and the gift of hope in this critically acclaimed slice of life from master filmmaker Mike Leigh. Amazon.com Director Mike Leigh's gift for finding rich drama and humor in ordinary human lives remains as strong as ever in Another Year. Plot is almost nonexistent: Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), a happy and settled couple, both support and try to fend off the neediness of their less fortunate friends--particularly Mary (Lesley Manville), whose fantasies of romance with Tom and Gerri's son Joe (Oliver Maltman) come crashing down when Joe brings home his new girlfriend Katie (Karina Fernandez). Leigh's ability to draw astoundingly fully realized performances from his superb casts can turn a simple bit of anxious flirting into nerve-wracking comedy, or make the audience feel the cruel sting of a sudden disappointment. Manville (who's appeared in previous Leigh movies, as has most of the cast) turns in a remarkably alive performance, making Mary's yearning and fears almost uncomfortably vivid--but everyone in the cast is thoroughly natural, with the ever-dependable Broadbent (familiar from Moulin Rouge and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and Sheen anchoring the film with a quiet, confident affection. Another Year is a gentle addition to Leigh's oeuvre; it doesn't have the head-to-head conflict of Secrets and Lies or the musical fervor of Topsy-Turvy. This movie's emotions are more rueful and reflective, pondering the nature of contentment. Much as Happy-Go-Lucky questioned the essence of cheerfulness, Another Year asks, What makes one person able to find love, while another flounders? Not a common topic for a movie, but Mike Leigh is not a common filmmaker. --Bret Fetzer