Review of 45 Years (2015) by Mikael K — 26 Jan 2016

Director Andrew Haigh proved himself an exceptional master of low-key storytelling with his 2011 sophomore gem "Weekend," a stunning drama about two gay men who meet and hook up over one weekend just before one of them is leaving town. Gimmick-free and subtle in the extreme, the film charmed critics and audiences with its uncanny intensity.

Haigh went on to work on the acclaimed TV-series "Looking" for HBO and is now back with a third feature. Whereas "Weekend" was a convincingly moving tale of what human relationships can grow into in the course of just one weekend, "45 Years" refers to the length of the relationship being examined. This relationship is a marriage between Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay).

One week before their 45th anniversary celebration, Geoff receives news that the body of his fiancé from life before Kate has been found in the Alps, decades after a fatal accident Geoff himself witnessed. We follow Kate for that one week before the anniversary as the forgotten time preceding the marriage seeps in between the spouses.

Haigh keeps his focus on Kate, making "45 Years" Rampling's film. She has always been completely reliable, and again she creates Kate as someone whose mind we can tap. The character takes over everything else. There's very little dialog and the storytelling is just as low-key yet powerful as with "Weekend". Kate is by many standards immature and petty in her internal reactions and painfully aware of it. After almost half a century the fact that her husband is a person with his own thoughts and past solidifies as her new reality.

It is beautifully demonstrated that Kate married Geoff as a young girl and has never been a person on her own. She has therefore assimilated her somewhat submissive husband as an extension of herself. When dramatic truths about his past are revealed, the altered perception instantly changes everything. Geoff is ever-present but on the sidelines. He's a little bit meek, a character who seems completely open. Yet Courtenay and Haigh manage to make us join in on the alienation Kate feels towards him.

"45 Years" is a masterpiece of a film, intimate and subtly dramatic. It's full of deep characterization and ingeniously controlled storytelling that conveys a powerful, relatable tale with compassion and rare honesty.