45 Years

Dir: Andrew Haigh

2015

*****

I was thoroughly impressed by Andrew Haigh's 2011 romantic drama Weekend and was awaiting his next feature with great anticipation. I wasn't disappointed, far from it in fact. 45 Years is the perfect example of what can be achieved with the simplest of ideas. After 45 years of marriage, Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and her husband Geoff (Tom Courtenay) are just days away from celebrating their anniversary party. They are celebrating at 45 years as Geoff was undergoing heart bypass surgery around the time of their 40th. Everything changes the day Geoff receives a letter in the post telling him that they have found the body of his ex-girlfriend, frozen and perfectly preserved in a glacier in an Alpine crevasse in Switzerland, fifty years after she first went missing. Kate is concerned and also slightly jealous but the more she finds out about her husband’s first love, the more and more she feels that her life has been chance and maybe wasn't really meant to be after all. It is devastatingly real, thanks to the triumphantly subtle performances from the two great actors. It could easily be a stage play and it could also be described as a thriller and even a ghost story. The story peals away bit by bit quite beautifully, it's never predictable and always striking. It is the quietest edge-of-the-seat drama I've ever seen, perfectly calm and utterly mesmerizing. The last twenty minutes of the film contain some of the best examples of acting and directing I have ever seen. Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling are faultless, and I can't wait to see what Andrew Haigh does next. 45 Years deserves far more recognition than it has so far received, it is easily one of the best dramas of 2015 and indeed the decade.