Pomp and circumstances, where we have curiously grown into a
society that loves to celebrate ourselves, which seems like an excuse to cover
up the lengthy periods of emptiness and disenchantment that define our lives, unhappy
with our jobs, our nation’s leaders, and the inexplicable violence that
continues to erupt around the globe, instead throwing a good party for
ourselves, claiming we deserve it. This
is a curiously understated, beautifully acted, slowly developing portrait of a
longstanding marriage, where the length of time together would seem to suggest
solid footing, but we’re on especially delicate grounds here. Underneath the storyline is a crumbling
dissection of class differentiation covering a veneer of happiness, where
settling into the customs and habits of the bourgeoisie isn’t all that it’s
cracked up to be, where there are longstanding disappointments on the limitations
of so-called success. That being said,
the film is set in the rural outlying areas of Norfolk, England, where we’re
witness to the established routines of an aging couple that’s been together for
nearly half a century, Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff Mercer (Tom
Courtenay), where Kate rises early in the morning to give the dog a nice, long
walk through the mostly unpopulated territories of the region, where Geoff is
about through with breakfast by the time they arrive back, where she dutifully
cleans up afterwards. We’re privy to the
smaller aspects of their day, chatting about nothing in particular before she
heads into town to run errands while he sets about performing needed chores
around the house, where they each exist in a comfort zone with as little
confrontation as possible. After dinner,
having discussed whatever needs to be discussed, they head upstairs where
they’re in bed by 10:30, only to do it all over again the very next day. Living a comfortable existence in retirement,
the film itself is a series of collected minutiae, where we’re able to surmise
little dissension in the ranks, but within the week they’re expected to
celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary, an event that’s been planned for
weeks and months, where they stand up before a gathering of family and friends
and honor their marital stability, performed by the standard bearers of British
theater, where Rampling was the recipient of a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award
from the European Film Awards, while Courtenay was
honored with knighthood in February 2001 for his contribution to the nation’s
theater and cinema.
While on the surface, what could be simpler? Part of the film’s fascination is that it
appears to be driven by offscreen issues, by something we’re never familiar
with, which can be an unsettling experience for the audience, as whatever truth
there is to be found remains ambiguous. What
sets this apart is the influence of the writer/director, whose acclaimed
earlier film Weekend
(2011) is considered one of the more naturalistic portrayals of gay romance,
where one might expect something altogether different going on underneath the
surface of this film. Adapting a short
story by David Constantine called In
Another Country, Haigh resets the time period, making the couple a bit
younger, where their paths initially meet in the 60’s, a time of social
upheaval, changing the overall context of the story, adding the anniversary
story at the end while altering the central psychological point of view from the
husband to the wife. Setting the story
in motion is the receipt of a letter, where Geoff has to pull out an old
foreign-language dictionary just to be able to read it, coming from Swiss
authorities announcing the discovery of a dead body in the Swiss Alps they
believe is Katya, his former lover before he met Kate, whose frozen body has
been perfectly preserved in the glacier ice from a hiking accident that
happened in the early 60’s. While
initially this revelation from his past seems to stir little to no reaction at
all, by the end of the week, however, the impact has the makings of potentially
undermining their marriage. The film
follows the day-by-day developments in their lives as they approach the
celebration, where ever so slowly there is a shift in their understanding of
one another, where this single event has a way of eroding their trust and
confidence, though on the surface things stay primarily the same. It’s an interesting take on the fragility of
relationships, even with long-established couples, where sometimes the least
expected thing can cause irrational ebbs and flows, where it may not
necessarily even make sense, but it certainly happens. The premise here is that it’s not supposed to
happen, as couples like this are the bedrock of the community, having endured
their share of adversity, supposedly setting an example for others. But even they are susceptible to unexpected
surprises, despite having built a good life for themselves, with a dog filling
the spaces of children they never had, where there’s a noticeable absence of
family photos, no smiling pictures of grandchildren, with most of their
personal memorabilia tucked away in the attic somewhere.
Memories of Katya start infiltrating their lives, where
Geoff ruminates over his lost dreams, remembering a time in his life when he
still held convictions, associating Katya’s death with his own resurrected
youth, where he certainly anticipated a different life, filled with progressive
young ideals about social change, while now he finds himself surrounded by
people that reflect that status quo, exactly what he once railed against. When he sneaks into the attic at night to
sneak a peek of old photographs, Kate grows concerned by a change in habits,
where he starts sneaking cigarettes as well, suddenly viewed as the forbidden
fruit, something they both decided long ago to overcome, making a pact to stop
smoking. While distressing, it’s not
altogether earthshaking, yet Geoff, it seems, is going through a period of
mourning, where remembering the dead is part of the expression of grief. This is not something Kate sympathizes with,
as she is and has always been consumed by bourgeois values, with social
expectations suggesting she may be more worried about what others think than
the man sitting across from her, where her emotional state of repression and
icy reserve is guarded like the national treasury, rarely exhibiting any
feelings of spontaneity or even charisma, where her over-controlling manner
sets her apart from others, but it’s based on presumed middle class security,
where she’s rarely, if ever, been under threat.
Nonetheless, it’s her dog that is seen as her loyal companion, while
Geoff continues to surprise her and do the unexpected, which she thinks is
getting away from her, where she’s losing all control. In her mind, her husband’s feelings are
borderline infidelity, as he insists on re-experiencing faded memories, where
Katya’s spirit is like an unexpected ghost that is now terrorizing and haunting
her, allowing doubts to creep in, where Geoff does little to dispel her growing
anxiety. Instead she grows tired of
smelling Katya’s perfume, seeing her pictures, the preserved diary with dried
flower petals, or feeling the hold she still has on her husband, growing
increasingly frustrated, where she’s beginning to think she doesn’t even know
the man she’s been married to all these years.
In an impetuous moment, Geoff calls Kate’s best friend a fascist for
being a Margaret Thatcher apologist.
Mind you, this is the lady that’s springing for the party, so courtesy
suggests a certain amount of gratitude, but it’s symptomatic of a fissure that’s
grown between them, where long-frozen secrets are suddenly springing to
life. Who’s more of a domineering
Thatcherite than Kate, making an ultimatum about how it’s going to be the night
before their anniversary party, adding pressure to a crucial speaking
appearance before the distinguished guests, where it’s as if Geoff is delivering
a speech before the House of Lords. Meanwhile Kate, suddenly exposed and vulnerable,
reacts angrily, thinking the unthinkable, as love is illusive, subject to
unalterable shifts, but only because their unspoken feelings have been left to
fester for so long. Much of the viewer’s
take on this film is highly subjective, as it all comes down to how you read
the characters, where the real intrigue is how quietly devastating the
final sequence becomes.
