45 Years (2015)

Nothing happened. I actually had to read the spoiler reviews to be sure I didn't miss something, but nope, nothing happens in this movie. The first scene is a long drawn-out view of the house that showed a good few minutes of nothing happening, I should have realised at that point that the tone was set, and not settled in waiting for a plot to evolve. The lead character was rich and likeable and could have moved me I'm sure, if she'd only had a storyline. So annoyed at myself for sticking this out and wasting my evening.

... especially concerning Geoff's back story. I was sure the film was going to reveal that Geoff murdered Katya out of jealousy because she flirted with the Italian mountain guide. Instead, we have the rather unrealistic prospect of a very capable and grounded woman, Kate, feeling threatened by a love affair that happened before she met and married Geoff.I can believe that the childless Kate would be deeply hurt by the knowledge that, throughout their 45 year marriage, Geoff had concealed Katya's pregnancy. What I found harder to accept is that such an admirable woman would allow this to dissolve her spirit to such an extent that it reduces her to an insecure ingenue. I was deeply disappointed and rather offended by this treatment of Kate's character.It would have been more far more realistic for a mature, intelligent woman like Kate to confront Geoff immediately, demand an apology and have it out with him rather than for her to almost beg him to come clean about his feelings and his past.When Geoff eventually admitted to Kate that, yes, he would have married Katya had she not died, I found it unrealistic that Kate would grind away on this instead of retorting that she should have married someone who would have respected her enough to be honest about his past. At the start of the film, Kate and Geoff are equals. At the end of the film, Kate sees herself as second best. I think it is most regrettable that the story chose to go in that direction.Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay are excellent, but the story itself is hugely disappointing.

I commend the actors in this film who were strong enough to push through this lame premise.After 45 years of marriage, the idea that a dead ex-girlfriend would cause such a rift in a marriage is hard to believe. Hats off to the two main leads who were able to pull this off.I just wasn't able to sympathize with the characters over this situation. It was really much ado about nothing.

How would you feel if you suddenly discovered that your life partner of close to half a century had been secretly harboring a passion for someone else? That's the dilemma facing the elderly couple at the heart of "45 Years," a moody, low-keyed British drama (based on the novel by "In Another Country" by David Constantine) that focuses on a marriage that seems destined for anything but a happily-ever-after ending.With the physical fragility and lived-in faces that come with age, two icons of British cinema, Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courteney, portray Kate and Geoff Mercer, a seemingly contented couple on the verge of celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary. A few days before the elaborately planned event, however, Geoff confesses to Kate that he was once seriously involved with a woman who died tragically in a mountain- climbing accident before he and Kate met. Despite the roughly 50 years that have elapsed since the woman's death, Kate finds herself unable to come to terms with the feeling of deceit and betrayal that gnaws at her day and night over the "infidelity" of the man she thought she knew and to whom she had fully given over her heart. Yet, Kate, perhaps cognizant of how petty she might appear making too much of something that happened so long ago, chooses to seethe pretty much in silence, venting her hurt and anger in nonverbal and largely passive aggressive ways. But for Kate, this revelation has "tainted" everything that has come before in the relationship - a strikingly sad prospect when there is so little time left to rectify the mistake or to recover what the couple once had between them.Ascetic direction by writer Andrew Haigh - austere close-ups of the characters alternating with stark images of the largely sunless rural countryside - perfectly captures the internal drama taking place within this suddenly altered marriage. The bitterness of the tale is encapsulated most effectively in the uncompromising final shot, a brief but lucid moment that shows how the most brutal of messages can often be conveyed through the tiniest of gestures.