Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtney, Dolly Wells, Geraldine James, Richard Cunningham, Hannah Chalmers, David Sibley, Sam Alexander, Max Rudd, Michelle Finch, Camille Ucan, Kevin Matadeen, Paul Goldsmith, Charles Booth, Peter Dean Jackson, Lucy Temple, Richard Banham, Ellie Tivey, Martin Atkinson.
The idyllic nature of a good marriage can be measured in not just years but how these years came about. To reach any number of years with stories and comfort is one thing but when it can be undermined by a figure from the past, one long unthought-of, the presence of them can be un-nerving, even after 45 Years.
For Kate and Geoff Mercer, the events leading up to their 45th wedding anniversary should be ones filled with planning and happiness but as news filters its way across Europe that rocks the idyllic nature of their country life living, ghosts can be seen everywhere and the very act of picking at imagined and real scabs threatens to do damage that might undo everything.
45 Years is a very gentle story but one that captures a certain mood, one that suggests a first love, especially one that was not able to fulfil its blossoming youthful promise and one that could very easily have ended in bitterness anyway, only ever lays dormant under the waters of time. To understand this is fine but to allow the picking apart of certain aspects is naturally one that seeks to undermine; from both sides of the marriage ravine.
Andrew Haigh’s adaptation of David Constantine’s short story is a beautifully crafted tale and one that takes the everyday and shines a spotlight upon it, it asks the cinema goer to imagine with thought rather than action what you would do in the same circumstances. To understand the short comings of any one person is a gift to which all humanity should strive rather than condemning them for feeling anything other than being human.
Charlotte Rampling may be enjoying a renaissance of late with her excellent acting in the television programme Broadchurch but this grand dame of British and French cinema has perhaps never been better as Kate Mercer and the beautiful chemistry and depth of feeling shown between her and the great Tom Courtenay is both textured and giving in all respects to the cinema goer.
A film of absolute substance, 45 Years is a gem to be appreciated.
Ian D. Hall