Cleve Film Fest

Another Year

Mike Leigh. You either love him or hate him. I’ve rarely met someone who thinks he’s just all right. Having never really watched a Mike Leigh film I approached ’Another Year'with an open mind. Tailing the lives of Tom and Jerry (that’s a deliberate joke) played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen the film follows a year in their lives and all the people who dip in and out. You have their son Joe who’s in his early thirties and hasn’t got a girlfriend, and their friend Terry who lives in Hull, is overweight and utterly depressed at how his life has fallen away slowly over the years. Then there’s Mary played by Lesley Manville.

Mary dominates the seasons the film passes through in one way or another. Neurotic and slightly unhinged you are left wondering whether you’re supposed to feel sorry for her, cringe at her or laugh at her. From my viewpoint it was a combination of all three. Without giving too much detail away, ’Another Year’ trudges through the Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter with aplomb using Tom and Jerry as the focal point to which all the characters connect to each other. All the actors play their parts with great skill and it’s heartening to see a film where nothing much happens on the surface, but the moment you delve a little deeper there’s a bustling hub of activity beneath each character’s face. Just watch Mary closely throughout the film. Her face says more then her words ever could. It is a true master class of acting from Manville; fascinating and cringeworthy to watch all in one.

Leigh seems to use his characters as test products across the spectrum of human emotion. It’s unreal and real at the same time. So what do I think of Mike Leigh? I must be the first to say, I think he’s all right based on this.

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Film Review: Little Fockers

Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and wife Pam (Teri Polo) with their twin boys live in a Chicago neighborhood. Greg is a male nurse and is having difficulty with their finances. Greg finds a way to keep up with his finances by agreeing to help a sexy medical representative played by Jessica Alba sell an erectile-dysfunction drug known as Sustengo.

Greg’s father-in law Jack Byrnes, (Robert de Nero) newly recovered from his mild heart attack and wife Dina visit their home and designates Greg as his successor to the family patriarch. With his new designated role as patriarch of the family, Greg acts bossy but still continues to make mistakes along the way, making Jack dismayed. To keep Jack from further pestering him Greg injects a good dose of the Sustengo into Jack’s drug-enhanced boner while his son looked horrified.

The story line deals more about the continued opposition between Greg Focker and his father-in-law Jack Byrnes, so no friends with benefits there. Their fights are now more centered on antagonism, envy and insecurity instead of past fights about hidden cameras and secret agent antics.

The movie lacks many laugh moments with many subplots- an ex boyfriend played by Owen Wilson and Greg’s hippie parents played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand who appeared in and out of the story. The movie tried to focus more about a family situation where raising kids become a priority and the difficulties a family has to face in current times. The movie also deals with human emotions such as the value of children to their parents and also about family relationships.

However, there is combined dry and sarcastic humor, few genuine laughs and some tears. But then, since many people liked the first and second sequels, then this sequel would do just fine. It is still entertainment though not of the finest kind.

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