45 Years **** (2015, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James) – Movie Review

Writer-director Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years is brilliant in its very English way, all intense, repressed and minimalist, quite Pinteresque really. Certainly it’s brilliantly acted: Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay won the Best Actress and Best Actor Awards at the Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

Kate and Geoff Mercer are about to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary when a letter arrives for Geoff informing him that the body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps for 50 years. This really sets the cat among the pigeons of what had long been a happy and successful marriage.

Kate’s insistence on digging up the past is going to destroy the present – and the future. [Incidentally, they couldn’t celebrate their more usually celebrated 40th anniversary because Geoff was busy having a by-pass back then.]

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay are both quite extraordinary, acting mostly in huge, revealing close-ups with twitches and ticks, both of them splendidly twitchy performers. They totally convince you that they have known and loved each other for 45 years, and know everything about each other, or at least think they did. And that’s the whole point.

Rampling and Courtenay have different acting styles, and they confront and complement each other perfectly as the couple’s internal battle commences. It’s so internal there’s going to be combustion.

She’s totally repressed, virtually emotionally constipated. He’s a bit more mobile with his feelings. Men cry first, apparently, we’re told. Interesting. You might want to argue about this afterwards.

The film is virtually a two-hander, at least in terms of any substantial speaking roles, though Geraldine James gets a slight look in as the couple’s ‘fascist’ friend.

Haigh’s screenplay is based on the short story by David Constantine. You are aware that the film is telling a short story, but that doesn’t by any means it’s insubstantial. It’s not. It’s mesmerisingly engrossing and impactful.

Films about older people can be wildly dull or depressing. This is neither. It’s very bitter-sweet and poignant, in the way of Brief Encounter. Quite lovely.

At the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015, Rampling won Best Performance in a British Feature Film (tied) – ‘Certain people can do more with a gesture and a look than most people can do with ten words, and this is why this award goes to Charlotte Rampling’.

And Haigh won The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film. ‘This year it goes to a quietly explosive film which represents classic filmmaking at its best. This is a measured yet provocative film, a masterclass in understated acting that was the unanimous choice of the jury.’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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