[yasr_overall_rating]
A married couple preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary receive shattering news that promises to forever change the course of their lives.
Sometimes a drama comes along that’s so intense on a purely emotional level, it plays out like the most visceral of thrillers. Director Andrew Haigh’s “45 Years” achieves that feat with the subtlest of plots, the most understated glances, a film of insinuation and longing and dread, and two formidable lead performances than propel the minimalist storyline forward with heart-wrenching momentum. Similarly to Ruben Östlund’s recent “Force Majeure,” in which a minor snowslide triggers a major emotional avalanche, “45 Years” also begins with a fragile, seemingly inconsequential occurrence, a flutter of a butterfly wing, that sparks a glowing remnant and eventually causes an existential inferno.
Aging couple Kate and Geoff Mercer (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) live peacefully in the British countryside. Their 45th anniversary approaches (they had to skip the 40th, due to Geoff’s bypass surgery). One day, during breakfast, they receive news of the discovery of a body, Geoff’s long-lost love, Katja, frozen and presumably preserved under the ice of a Swiss mountain glacier. Geoff’s immediate impulse is to go to Switzerland to identify the body, but Kate gently tells him he’s too old to climb mountains.
Kate inspects the venue for their upcoming party, a museum-like building, frozen in time like Katja, where, the organizer informs her, the “Trafalgar ball” was once held. She clarifies that they specifically don’t want to recreate their wedding…Is her memory of the momentous day already tarnished by the reappearance of a past love in her husband’s life?
The news haunts them. Geoff reveals to Kate that he happened to be Katja’s next of kin, because they had to pretend to be married to the “authorities,” for some vague housing reasons. Kate is understandably suspicious, asks Geoff why he hasn’t told her about this before. He is sure he has, but if he hasn’t, “It’s hardly the sort of thing you tell your beautiful new girlfriend, is it?”
Thus begins Kate’s reevaluation of her marriage: she wonders about their absence of photos, reminisces about their days together, confronts her own insecurities, her resentments and jealousy. In the meantime, Geoff delves deep within himself, mourning the loss of his adventurous spirit, and the woman that shared it (“I think that’s the worst part of getting decrepit…Losing that purposefulness.”) He starts smoking again, doesn’t shave, loses interest in the upcoming party. “Do you think the library will have anything on climate change?” Geoff asks, in vain hope that the ice of the past will melt away, and he may yet reconnect with a thawed-off Katja.
Katja becomes an apparition, haunting Kate’s every step. She confronts Geoff, with a tremendously affecting exchange, that results in Kate saying, “I think I was enough for you. I’m just not sure you do.” The final scene, the wedding anniversary, is so multi-faceted – Is Geoff’s touching speech honest? Does Kate believe it? Is there a “happily-ever-after”? – it puts to shame even glorified, beautifully shot Hollywood pictures that claim to be the zenith of psychological nuance, such as Todd Haynes’ beautiful, but cold and hollow, “Carol.”
And talk about great acting. Charlotte Rampling, an international stalwart, known for baring it all in controversial films such as Liliana Cavani’s “The Night Porter” and François Ozon’s “Swimming Pool,” is mesmerizing here, vulnerable and distraught and loving and tender. There is a scene where Geoff recollects the tragic past he shared with Katja, and Rampling’s face conveys more during those couple of minutes than, say, Megan Fox managed in all of her films combined. Tom Courtenay gives an equally touching performance, filled with quiet regret and torment and, ultimately, what I would like to think is love.
There is a particularly beautifully-orchestrated sequence that comes about halfway through the film. It begins in dialogue, morphs into a dance and ends in passionate but ill-fated lovemaking. Their attempt to grasp onto their youth is brilliantly exemplified here, but the ultimate, for lack of a better word, climax of the sequence, involving an attic and an old photo, adds a whole other layer that makes it unforgettable.
The concepts of time, memories and aging permeate the film, whether it’s in the day-by-day segment structure, as if counting down to doom; or Katja being frozen in eternal youth – something Geoff aches for (perhaps there’s a reason Kate’s name so closely resembles his lost love’s?). It’s a film of small gestures (I loved the “blink-and-you’ll-miss it” look Kate gives a painting of a glacier mountain), which speak volumes of truth. With echoes of Michael Haneke’s “Amour” – but not as dreadfully pragmatic about life’s futility – and Paolo Sorrentino’s “Youth” – but more grounded in reality – “45 Years” is about life itself, and is one of the best films of the year.
Opens at the Angelika Film Centers in Dallas & Plano January 29th
