Film Review
Plans for Christmas lights got hosed--so I marched down Bayswater to the Coronet, toward the mobs of people trying to get in and see Harry Potter. I approved of the healthy push and shove so missing in this country. But I wasn't there to see Harry (not again, anyhow); I wanted to see Jim Broadbent.
Very British indie film--everything felt so real-life; there are sequences of people sitting, looking at each other during an awkward silence. It features a cute couple out in a place like Hampstead, complete with tomato garden and warm kitchen; their friends are struggling with the fact that they're growing old and their lives haven't turned out the way they wanted. It's hard to load those kind of struggles on two peoples' shoulders, even if they are happily married and have had a rich life together. I left the theatre convinced that 70% of your happiness depends on marrying the right person for you, and that it is possible to be happy together ages after the amour has faded.
The film is a lot like King Lear in the way that I know I'll appreciate it a lot better when I'm older. When you're young, your life changes pretty regularly in really major ways: marriages, babies, university, moving. But as you get older, those don't happen much at all. Your chance to "start all over" rarely presents itself anymore, and for many, death isn't much to look forward to when it's the only change left. But the movie was optimistic; things change, and sometimes they stay the same. Sometimes life isn't what you expected or wanted. But you can be happy anyway, really. Happiness is a choice--hard work. But that helps you mature and see the world better.
All the actors were top-notch, the screenplay felt so real, and it's so packed with awkward--you feel like you're eavesdropping on real peoples' lives. There aren't car chases or dramatic concepts developed here, no convoluted ending--just people living another year. Really marvelous.
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