Le Week-end **** (2013, Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum) – Classic Movie Review 13,010

The bittersweet 2013 British-French drama film Le Week-End is witty, stylish and entertaining, with superb performances Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a couple on a second honeymoon in Paris.

Director Roger Michell’s bittersweet 2013 British-French comedy drama film Le Week-End is extremely witty and stylish, and most of all highly entertaining, with superb performances from ideally cast Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as Birmingham married academic couple Nick and Meg Burrows holidaying in Paris to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

They honeymooned in Paris so there may be a chance to rejuvenate their marriage with this second honeymoon. They are comfortable but have ordinary lives and dull careers, and want more, somehow, if only…

Obviously, there has to be conflict, otherwise it would just be a tour of Paris, and here there is rather a lot: the couple’s relationship is edgy, with more conflict than affection. She looks for excitement, he looks for dull pleasure. Meg immediately dislikes the accommodation Nick has chosen and they transfer to a much more expensive hotel. They eat and dink and try to be merry. But Nick reveals he has been told to take early retirement as a philosophy lecturer and Meg, a teacher, says she is considering leaving him.

Starting with The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) (TV), it is the fourth collaboration between Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi, who comes up with a quite delightful screenplay, clever, perceptive, amusing and warmly human.

A film for grown-ups, a civilised pleasure, it is a memorable occasion, a worthy showcase for national treasures Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan. Jeff Goldblum, an unexpected cast member in such a film and this, adds his quirky persona as Morgan, Nick’s university friend, now a wealthy writer. The couple bump into him, challenged, even threatened by the idea of his success.

The cast are Jim Broadbent as Nick Burrows, Lindsay Duncan as Meg Burrows, Jeff Goldblum as Morgan, Olly Alexander as Michael, Judith Davis as Eve, and Marie-France Alvarez as Victoire La Chapelle.

Nick comments on the dance scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande à Part (1964), a favourite movie of his that is playing on TV, but oddly he doesn’t mention Godard’s film Weekend. (1967).

Films directed by Roger Michell: The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) (TV), Persuasion (1995), My Night with Reg (1996), Titanic Town (1998), Notting Hill (1999), Changing Lanes (2002), The Mother (2003), Enduring Love (2004), Venus (2006), Morning Glory (2010), Hyde Park on Hudson (2012), Le Week-End (2013), My Cousin Rachel (2017), Nothing Like a Dame (2018), Blackbird (2019), The Duke (2020), and Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts (2022).

Roger Michell died on 22 September 2021, aged 65.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,010

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