Mubi Monday: 45 Years (2015)

If you have been in any kind of relationship with someone for 45 years then you may think that you would know everything there is to know about them. And you may think there's nothing that would ever make you feel less secure in that relationship. That's probably incorrect though. We all have things that we don't want to say to even our closest confidant, whether it's that bedroom fantasy that you've never been brave enough to discuss, the memories you made with someone else many years ago that can never be fully wiped away as they helped to make you who you are today, or even just the amount of times you examine the toilet paper after every attempt to wipe away the klingons hanging around uranus. Unsurprisingly, 45 Years focuses on that second option, but it could just as easily be about any of them, although I am not sure Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling would be as comfortable discussing their bathroom habits.

Having had to miss out on a celebration of their 40th wedding anniversary, Kate (Rampling) and Geoff (Courtenay) are gearing up to make a big deal of their 45th year together. The couple are rocked, however, by the death of someone that it turns out Geoff was in a relationship with before he ever met Kate. This takes Geoff on a journey through some reminiscences while Kate starts to wonder about how this revelation reframes their relationship to one another.

Based on a short story, "In Another Country", by David Constantine, 45 Years is written and directed by Andrew Haigh. Haigh has a filmography well worth exploring, but this is arguably his weakest film, despite the strength of the lead performances. It's the kind of film that feels as if it would be much better to see as a staged play, with very little added to the material to make it more cinematic or feeling as if it benefits from the medium.

Both Rampling and Courtenay ARE superb though, the former being clearly unsettled and concerned by a revelation that the latter considers to be a footnote in his own life. There's clearly love between the two main characters, but also a disparity when it comes to how they both start to act on the lead up to their big anniversary date. As is made clear in certain scenes, Courtenay's character doesn't even realise how his actions and attitudes are affecting his wife, but he tries his best to mollify her when it's clearly described to him. Both of the stars get to go through a great range of emotions, but it's Rampling who gets the best work, being more present and affected by everything than Courtenay's slightly (typically?) oblivious man. While there are few supporting cast members, Geraldine James gets a scene or two, and is always good to see onscreen.

I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed or appreciated this film if I'd watched it as a much younger man, but it's one that will be of interest to those who have been in any long-term relationship. Some things are taken for granted, whether they should be or not, sometimes the past looms up to cast a large shadow over the present, and sometimes the present needs to be shaken up slightly, just enough to get rid of any complacency and insecurity that may be clinging on to either party like a wet sweater. The longer the relationship, the stronger things can be, but there are still ways in which the rug can be pulled from under your feet. 45 Years shows one such scenario, and how one moment can create a ripple effect throughout an entire lifetime.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Billy Liar (1963)

Adapting the play of the novel, written by Keith Waterhouse (who, along with Willis Hall, also developed the play and screenplay), Billy Liar is a film from director John Schlesinger that holds up as a near-classic. It mixes the dreary kitchen sink drama approach with the daydreams of a character not a million miles removed from Walter Mitty, and the end result is deliciously bittersweet.

Tom Courtenay (who was an understudy of Albert Finney in the stage play) is Billy Fisher, a young man who doesn't see any easy escape from his job and family. He lives at home with his mum (Mona Washbourne), dad (Wilfred Pickles), and grandmother (Ethel Griffies). And his job is in an undertaker's office. Maybe his many flights of fancy will keep him happy as he goes through his daily routines, or the fact that he has a number of women convinced that they are going to be the one he marries. Billy also wants to get a new job, writing for a famous comedian, and thinks he could make a better new life for himself in London. But that may be just as much of a pipe dream as everything else that goes through his head.

An easy film to watch and digest, Billy Liar can be enjoyed simply as a look at someone who cannot help but tell a lie whenever he has the opportunity. Many of us have known people like him, and his tales alternate between being amusing, especially when visualised in sequences that punctuate the standard dreariness of a normal day in the life of a man who feels he's being held back from something great, and being the cause of some distress for those around him. He's in a bit of trouble with his employer (played by Leonard Rossiter), he's exasperated his father, and he's almost certain to upset one of the women that he's dating.

But dig just under the surface and there's even more to chew over. That sense of being entitled to something better, is it the usual male ego or is it something that has grown and mutated through every daydream that Billy has ever had? And where can Billy escape to if he cannot escape himself, which may very well be the biggest hurdle for him to overcome? It's this dilemma that comes to the fore in the last reel of the film, taking a look at how committed people can be when they weigh up the reality around them against the prospects they have dreamed about for many years.

Courtenay is superb in the main role, just managing to be charming and childish enough to stop viewers from hating him for his antics. Washbourne, Pickles, and Griffies are also very good, tolerating (or not) Billy's behaviour in different ways. Gwendolyn Watts and Helen Fraser get to be two very different women romantically involved with a liar, and they both do well with the material, but the standout is Julie Christie, playing a third woman, Liz, who somehow understands Billy better than most. The two of them are similar, but different in at least one crucial way. Rossiter is as brilliant as ever in his role, and there are supporting turns from Rodney Bewes, George Innes, Finlay Currie, and a few others that you may or may not recognise.

This is a film that I meant to see many years ago. It has a reputation that precedes it, and rightly so. I'm glad that I finally got to it, and I can now join in with the chorus of voices recommending it to others. An essential piece of British cinema.

9/10

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