The Sense of an Ending

Dir: Ritesh Batra

2017

****

At a film festival in San Francisco, director Ritesh Batra said that he had tea with Julian Barnes, author of The Sense of an Ending, ahead of filming. Batra has said that he was so nervous at meeting Barnes that he subsequently forgot most of their conversation, apart for Barnes's parting line; "Go ahead and betray me." He was of course being playful, maybe out of understanding that a pure adaptation would be difficult or because he was happy to walk away and have nothing to do with it. Maybe it was a nervous thing, I really don’t know, but one thing is for certain, his story was in very safe hands. Batra and screenwriter Nick Payne have made a few tweaks to the story but they are minimal in the scheme of things. I would go as far as saying that their version actually makes a lot more sense and gives the story a greater sense of mystery. The book is separated into two parts, one taking place in the 60s during our protagonist’s school and college years and the other taking place in the present day during our protagonist’s retirement. Jim Broadbent plays Tony Webster, a curmudgeonly middle class man in his 60s, lonely, with only his daughter and ex-wife in his life who humour him but never depend on him. One day, Tony receives a letter from a solicitor telling him that the mother of an ex-girlfriend of his has died and has left him something in her will. After further enquiries we learn that she has left him a diary. We watch the film as Tony tries to explain to his ex-wife what it all could mean as he tries to remember certain events from his past. Details unravel slowly and the plot thickens at a deliciously subtle pace. The film swaps from the 1960s to present day as Tony either explains something to someone or reads something he is sent. It’s a brilliant mystery with a rewarding and unpredictable ending. At no point is the viewer thrown a red herring, everything is there to support the conclusion but at no point is the truth revealed early. Not only is it a genuinely engaging mystery, it is also an authentic look at memory suppression and the subconscious effect it can have on a person. Broadbent’s performance as the curmudgeonly middle class Tony is frighteningly believable, I know people just like him and in my nightmares I turn into someone just like him. Charlotte Rampling plays Tony’s ex-girlfriend in the present day brilliantly. She’s haunted, frightening, harrowed but restrained which helps stir the mystery even more so as it seems it isn’t only the viewer who is confused. If Tony has been aware of the mystery all along I would have been mortified, indeed, it has been the downfall of many a would-be great thriller but in The Sense of an Ending it is handled perfectly. It’s never sprawling either, everything is handled in a matter of fact sort of way and everyone involved understand that sometimes things are best left unsaid and Broadbent and Rampling can say a thousand words with their eyes anyway. The performances are superb and the script is sublime. Younger actors Billy Howle (who plays young Tony) and Joe Alwyn get all the juicy lines but their delivery, particularly Alwyn’s, is astonishingly good. Ritesh Batra’s direction is also beautiful. It didn’t really need to be with such a strong story and brilliant performances but Batra gives the story a subtle flare of chic sophistication in his visuals which adds to the already rich content. It is one of 2017’s best and a largely overlooked masterpiece. It’s very subtle but it is incredibly real as well as being one of the most intriguing and suspenseful films of the decade that hasn’t been sugar coated, artificially sweetened of genetically modified. What is the film equivalent to a page turner?