Normally I write a movie review immediately after seeing the movie, because it is fresh to recollect the movie. When I was browsing the TV today and saw this movie, I stopped. I remember loving this movie when I had seen for the first time. Then I remembered that I did not write the movie review then. I was myself surprised, and I made it a point to write the review this time. So here it is. The story is beautifully told with passing of four seasons of a year – that is why it is titled ANOTHER YEAR. Tom (Jim Broadbent) a geologist and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) a counselor are older married couple who encounter friends and family with their underlying issues. First one is Mary (Leslie Manville) is a middle-aged divorcée receptionist, heavy alcoholic desperate seeking a new relationship – and eye Tom and Gerri's son Joe (Oliver Maltman) who is much younger - around 30 years old. Second is Ken (Peter Wight), Tom's school friend, who is overweight, a compulsive eater, drinker and smoker. Third is Ronnie (David Bradley) , estranged son of Tom's brother, who arrives late and is angry with everyone for not delaying his mother's funeral ceremony. Through the relationships of these characters, director Mike Leigh beautifully exploits the togetherness and loneliness with warmth, tenderness, kindness, giving, emotional loss, yearnings, and nurturing, growing old together. There are some well executed scenes that resonate with audiences in terms of the assembled cast and crew delivering on the spot improvisation and inventiveness in executing an endearing scene. Mary's drunkenness, Mary's romantic advances towards Joe, Mary's reluctance and rejection of Ken's advances, Mary's hostility towards Joe's girlfriend Katie (Karina Fernandez), Mary's apology to Gerri for her behavior and the last lingering scene where Mary is lost and uncertain on a happy dinner night. It is Mary's under-current role (exit & entry) all the way that weaves this story. It was not a wonder that Leslie Manville won several best actress awards for her brilliant portrayal of this role. A special mention for Director Mike Leigh for writing a script and screenplay that leaves trust and scope for exceptional improvisation to imbibe the flow of scenes and characters. Not many can achieve this finesse. I will go with 7.75 out of 10

Mike Leigh is among the best filmmakers working today, and he's crafted a little hide out of actors and audiences who continuously return to his work knowing that whatever it is that he's making will be top dog. Another Year stands along with his best films, if they could even be quantified - he's made so many great pictures that you lose count going over his filmography. In a way he reminds me of a British version of Robert Altman (though perhaps more dour); he has a wonderful way with words, and allows actors the freedom to explore their character's internal corners. Best of all, his films reflect life as it is - without judgment, without criticism; he wants us to feel them, and makes us empathize with even his most vile characters almost unconditionally. Another Year is among his most tranquil films, a reflection of life passing, and Tom and Gerri are among his most understanding, quiet characters - they listen, understand, and make peace when things are turbulent. Don't we all wish we had friends like that?

Is Mike Leigh trying to be Ingmar Bergman? Always the same actors, the same sorts of intimate human dramas. In this particular case we have a really smug, settled, very English couple (Tom and Geri) who work as a team, exchanging glances, out to spot any potentially unsettling situation and level it off (usually with yet another cup of tea). The woman of the couple (Geri) is a psychotherapist but completely unable to handle the desperation of her co-worker Mary, a stereotyped "desperate woman" (hopelessly over-acted by Lesley Manville) who is going mad simply because she can't find the right man. Surely this is a very dubious way to portray a woman who has difficulties with men? Tom and Geri are completely unable to deal with her and end up just shutting her out of their lives.I don't know if it's intentional or not but this film depicts all the horror of middle- class English life: cold and uncommunicative people who only seem nice but are really nasty to one another underneath, horrified at the slightest manifestation of emotion (be it love or anger), always wanting to dilute every experience and take the sting out of every situation.The idea of the "year" is supposed to be conveyed by the four seasons, depicted as the four seasons in the allottment tended by Tom and Geri. Another Bergman-ish touch.There's a brilliant cameo piece right at the beginning, in which the great Imelda Staunton plays one of Geri's patients, desperate to get some Valium from the doctor, very tense and loaded with problems she doesn't want to admit to. Staunton's ability to play this role, very close-up to the camera where you can see every nuance of her facial muscles, her frightened, suspicious eyes, her tight mouth. The immense abilities of this great actress only make Lesley Manville's portrayal of the "Anne" seem all the more hopelessly inadequate.The film has a number of discontinuities: since Anne and Geri work closely together every day, what happens at work when Geri decides to "unfriend" Anne? We're not told.Some of the really interesting characters (Tom and Geris' son Joe, played by the excellent Oliver Maltman, whose totally laid-back attitude is a foil to the absurdly keyed-up Anne; Tom's angry nephew Carl, played by Martin Savage - perhaps the only real hope in the film) never really develop.Disappointing. It's clear that Mike Leigh had something interesting he wanted to say with the film - something critical about English society- but he slips into making it a soft-focus poem about the happy, basically stupid life of Tom and Geri with their allottment and their cups of tea. Very disappointing and quite difficult to watch.

When my significant other suggested this film, I went into a process of immediate Denial:'' British Film? NO way!'' then to accept and shear happy-madness. I am glad I gave it a chance. It was a film with a point, a meaning, but OK it does evolve gradually! As I said earlier, this is a film which easily can be associated with mere modern films, such as: 'Young Adult'. Why ONLY read a book, when you have been victimized by such perpetrators, when you can set real pictures in unspoken words and feelings. Finally someone got, how it is and dares to move away from cheesy Hollywood cliché endings. Come on! Women have actually evolved since 'Friends' series and can appreciate the truth/reality.