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LE WEEK-END. Directed by Roger Michell, with Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Olly Alexander and Judith Davis.
REVIEW: David Rooney
A LIMBER nouvelle vague spirit ripples through Le Week-End. A grownup serio-comedy about the regrets and underappreciated rewards of time-worn love and companionship, this film is pleasurably supple in its mood shifts between droll verbal comedy and penetrating emotional truth. While not without touches of precious affectation, it is imbued with warmth and prickliness by the lived-in performances of Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan.
In his novels and screenplays, Hanif Kureishi has explored identity as shaped by family, race, social environment and politics. Working on an intimate canvas, the writer turns his insightful gaze to a couple well into middle age, and the ways their sense of themselves and one another has weathered over three decades of marriage.
College philosophy professor Nick (Broadbent) and schoolteacher Meg (Duncan) are first seen taking the Eurostar from London to Paris for a 30th anniversary weekend. Instigated by Nick to reinvigorate their sexually stale union, the trip gets off to a rocky start when he books them into a cheap dump. Meg takes charge of the cash and credit card and moves them into a swanky hotel, ignoring Nick’s fretfulness about the expense.
Anyone who’s ever been in or closely observed a long romantic partnership will recognise the dynamic here, with all its frictions, resentments, and consolations too. Over visits to museums, churches, bookstores and bistros, Nick and Meg bounce back and forth between harmony and discord. Both are at separate crossroads, which he faces in a cold fearful sweat, and she approaches with more stoicism.
The catalyst that prompts each of them to take a broader view of their marriage is a chance encounter with Morgan, a Cambridge buddy Nick hasn’t seen in years.
Played in a slyly amusing turn by Jeff Goldblum, Morgan is equal parts smug and charming.
In the movie’s terrific climactic stretch, Morgan raises a glass during dinner to Nick. His generous words underline the high esteem in which he holds his old friend and the enormous influence Nick had on the American as a young man, while also pointing out glaring differences. Nick’s frank response kills the conversation, eliciting an unexpected rejoinder from Meg. The awkwardness of this interaction is handled exquisitely.
In addition to its unsentimental observation of the compromises of marriage, Kureishi gives poignant consideration to midlife nostalgia for youthful promise and idealism.
Ending on a note of irresolution that’s calculatedly whimsical yet irresistible, the movie’s chief distinction is the intelligence and heart of its central performances. – Reuters/ Hollywood Reporter