Another Year (2010)

Comedy, Drama

Director: Mike Leigh
Writer: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Oliver Maltman

Mike Leigh's Another Year is an intimate exploration of the psychologies and experiences of ordinary people through the course of one year. Blending comedy and tragedy, the film centers around Tom and Gerri Hepple, a happily married older couple who have a comfortable, loving relationship, as we see them in contrast with their friends and family, who all suffer of some degree of unhappiness.

Being about happiness and more importantly why it's unequally distributed, Another Year can prove not very easy to watch, since it challenges the viewer to identify with its characters, who all have very well-defined and human attributes. However it's one of the more personal ones of Leigh's, a critically acclaimed slice of life from the master filmmaker, that's also enjoyable, even funny, and hugely rewarding.

Plot summary from IMDb: A married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years, are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness.

Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 18 wins & 42 nominations.
Runtime: 129 min
PG-13