JANUARY 8, 2015
– PALM SPRINGS, CA
If you (or your parents, for that matter) have been in a long-term relationship, you know the shorthand. Marriage is always work — it’s one day at a time — but once you’ve gotten over the hump and your anniversary is now in double digits, there is a certain ease in being together. You know what buttons not to push (and to push on rare occasions). You can finish each other’s sentences. And you know that a certain look speaks volumes to your spouse.
That’s where we find Kate and Geoff Mercer at the start of “45 Years.” Kate (Charlotte Rampling) loves walking their dog in the English countryside. Geoff (Tom Courtenay) likes an impromptu dance with his wife. Both share a taste for ’50s & ’60s music, and today’s big debate is whether to play The Platters’ “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” as their first dance at this coming Saturday’s celebration of their 45th wedding anniversary.
It’s the Monday before, and the mail arrives. Geoff opens a letter to learn that the body of Katya, a former girlfriend whom Geoff had dated before he ever met Kate, has been recovered in Switzerland. Katya had fallen from a ledge while mountain climbing with Geoff and apparently has been preserved for nearly half a century in ice, which has now melted thanks to climate change. Kate seems to have had a vague awareness of Katya (Kate? Katya? Hmmm…), but she had no idea what happened to her or that Geoff had listed himself as Katya’s “next of kin” so that they could share the same bed at that time in people’s homes.
Kate is surprised but tries to reassure her husband that she can’t be upset at something that occurred before she and Geoff were even a couple.
A long pause.
“Still….” she adds.
Boom! And the first crack in a 45-year relationship suddenly emerges.
Probing relationships is at the core of writer/director Andrew Haigh’s work. His most notable film to date, 2011’s “Weekend,” detailed the 48-hour relationship between two men, and his HBO series “Looking” treaded much of the same ground. Here, Haigh ventures into new territory — not heterosexuality per se, but the impact of secrets on a long-term relationship.
As the Mercers’ week before the party progresses, Geoff becomes more and more distant, seeming to obsess about his lost love, and Kate becomes more and more concerned about their future together. She begins to probe, and what she finds shakes her to her core.
Courtenay and Rampling are dream casting as Geoff and Kate. Though primarily known now for his work in the theatre, Courtenay had quite a film run early in his career, earning heartthrob status with his appearances in “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” (1962) and “Billy Liar” the next year, and he earned Oscar nominations for his work in “Doctor Zhivago” and “The Dresser.” His performance as Geoff is as assured and insightful as any in his distinguished career.
But the real revelation here is the work of Charlotte Rampling. Known early in her career for her roles in such provocative films as “The Damned” (1969) and especially “The Night Porter” (1974), and her recent work with top French filmmaker François Ozon in “Under the Sand” (2000) and “Swimming Pool” (2003), Rampling’s work has always been held in high regard among critics and colleagues. However, her often offbeat choice of projects has never brought her the kind of Oscar attention she is now getting for “45 Years.”
Though she has one of the most expressive faces of any actress, watch her physically react to her growing doubts about her husband and the fate of their marriage. When she dances with Geoff, note how she never quite makes eye contact with him (despite his best efforts) and where she places her hand on his arm. With these simple gestures, she tells us everything we need to know about the turmoil she is enduring, culminating in the film’s much celebrated final shot, which is simply devastating.
When a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes. Indeed.
GRADE: A-
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