ANOTHER YEAR written and directed by Mike Leigh, with Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen. A Mongrel Media release. 130 minutes. Opens Friday (January 14). For venues, trailers, and times, see Movies.
How very British. Lesley Manville is sipping a cup of tea while checking the morning reviews of her new film, Another Year.
“I want to know that people are getting it,” she says of the Mike Leigh film, which debuted the night before at the Toronto Film Festival.
Looking summery in a breezy orange dress, she’s a far cry from Mary, her high-strung, needy character in the film. Mary is a middle-aged divorcee whose loneliness is assuaged over drinks with her friends Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), a happy, stable couple approaching retirement.
Manville’s pleased with the near-unanimous praise the film’s been getting. Some are declaring it Leigh’s finest.
“He’s getting better as he gets older,” says the veteran actor who’s worked with Leigh on seven projects, including Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake. “His filmmaking has a maturity. I think he’s at the peak of his game he’s firing on all cylinders.”
Manville recognizes that the virtually plotless film could have passed by unnoticed.
“It’s a microscope on these people’s lives,” she says. “It is a great film about the human condition and what it’s like to be in a lonely position when you’re getting older. It is also one of the hardest films I’ve had to describe. It doesn’t have a classic beginning, middle and end, and none of the main characters dies.”
Like her character, Manville is a middle-aged divorcee (Manville was briefly married to Commissioner Gordon, ahem, Gary Oldman), but unlike the emotionally burdened Mary, she seems calm and satisfied with life. It probably helps that Manville’s role in Another Year has raised her profile.
During TIFF, her breakthrough performance got lots of Oscar buzz. Since then, the awards chatter has tapered off and focused on younger blood like Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) and, of course, the newly preggers Natalie Portman (Black Swan).
“The truth is, there are a lot of good performances around because, thankfully, parts for women are getting better,” she says.
“I’ve been acting for a very, very long time, and I do feel Another Year is some of my best work. It would be very lovely to be recognized.”
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