Another Year: Another Mike Leigh Film

“Another Year” is very much another Mike Leigh film. All his films have had value (starting with 1988’s “High Hopes”), but none has been stellar. That’s a perfect description of “Another Year.” It’s worth seeing, but don’t expect too much. The best thing it has going for it is a knockout supporting performance from Lesley Manville as a lonely, uneducated woman with a drinking problem and an almost complete inability to manage life. The performance does go a bit over the top. But in its more under-stated moments, Manville’s work is astounding. It’s a scandal that her performance hasn’t gotten more press in the United States. (She is shown above knocking back some wine.)

The main characters in “Another Year” are two saintly ex-flower children around age 60 who have a perfect marriage and are completely devoid of ego or vanity. They’re so darn easy-going and at peace with life. She (played adequately by Ruth Sheen) has an extreme over-bite that would make other women feel insecure. Yet Gerri is completely at peace with her flawed looks. As often the case in a Leigh film, the characters are less like real people and more like vehicles through which the filmmaker can praise or condemn social currents of the day. Leigh seems to be using the main characters here to advertise how much he thinks today's culture is inferior to that of the late 1960s. How Leigh misses the days of the flower children! He is arguably the most nostalgic filmmaker of our time.

As an example of their saintliness, this couple provides comfort to countless strays, broken middle-aged people who drown in addiction and loneliness. Here the central destroyed person is Mary (Manville). But there is also the obese, heavy-drinking, heavy-smoking Ken, who has a crush on Mary. Actor Peter Wight throws himself into the role of Ken with such abandon that I feared the actor would have a heart attack on screen. It is frightening to watch. There is also the near-catatonic Ronnie and his belligerent, speed-addicted son who picks fights with everyone who looks at him. Leigh’s victims are usually as cartoon-like as his heroes, but Manville breaks through the cartoon to get at something authentically human about her troubled character. The other supporting actors probably would have been able to do the same, if they had received more screen time.

When thinking of Leigh’s body of work, I’m reminded of something I once heard said of John Steinbeck: “Steinbeck was not a first-rate novelist, but he was a great second-rate novelist.” To me, Leigh is a very good second-rate filmmaker (much like Clint Eastwood, who has directed only one or two truly great films). There is always some value in his films, but invariably there’s also a healthy serving of treacle, polemic, or obviousness. I wish Leigh didn’t have quite so many axes to grind, and I wish he didn’t see art as a bastard form of social commentary. If Leigh more has the heart of a journalist than an artist, then he should be doing journalism.