45 YEARS – The Review

One would think that after 45 years of marriage, a husband and wife would know everything about each other. As the British drama 45 YEARS reveals, in devastating fashion, there are some unknowns that may always remain between two people.

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay give brilliant performances as a long-married couple in 45 YEARS, a subtle, moving drama about a couple whose lives are changed by an event long in the past. Rampling is deservedly nominated for an Oscar, after having gathered already a number of awards for her riveting performance, a performance that shows what a real actress can do.

As Kate (Rampling) and Geoff (Courtenay) Mercer prepare for their 45th anniversary party taking place at the end of that week, Geoff gets a letter from Switzerland, that reveals unknown parts of a long-ago past that have a profound effect on their marriage.

The film begins with the couple putter happily about their rural English cottage home, taking long walks with their dog and trips into the nearby Norfork village, where they meet with old friends. They have the kind of comfortable, almost telepathic connection of a happy long-married couple. Despite never having children, they seem content living a comfortable middle-class retirement after careers as a teacher for Kate and factory manager for Geoff.

When the letter arrives, things begin to take a strange turn. The letter, written in German that Geoff struggles to read, tells him that the body of his long-ago girlfriend Katya has been found in a crevasse where she fell to her death decades earlier. The letter comes to Geoff because he and Katya had been hiking through the Alps when the accident happened, and Geoff has been listed as her husband, as they were posing as a married couple although they were not actually married. The letter asked him, as next-of-kin, to come to Switzerland to identify the body although it could not be retrieved from the ice, something that would require him to hike up the mountain.

The request was impractical, of course, and it seems as if Geoff dismisses it. Kate vaguely remembered her husband telling her about the girlfriend who died before they met but had not thought much about it. Yet, as the week progresses, Geoff’ seems more agitated and obsessed with the long-dead woman, going through old mementos in the attic and secretly smoking again. Kate is put in the strange position of feeling jealous of a long-vanished rival, wondering about what it means for her marriage.

After seeming the kind of couple their friends hold up as a perfect marriage, that their marriage can be thrown into a sudden crisis by someone long dead, gone before they even met, seems inconceivable. Still, the film reveals how someone can be married to someone else for many years and still not truly know that person.

The film avoids the stereotypes commonly found is films about older people. British director Andrew Haigh (“Weekend”) structures the drama as a day-by-day countdown, as they prepare for a party to celebrate their 45th anniversary. Courtenay is excellent but the drama’s real focus is on Rampling, who delivers the performance of a lifetime.

As they count down the days to the anniversary party, the news works on their relationship, with Kate feeling an unreasonable jealousy of a dead rival, and Geoff descending into a secretive nostalgia, where he talks about going to Switzerland to see her body, still encased in ice and inaccessible, sneaking up to the attic to go through old mementos from that time in his life.

While Kate’s view of her marriage is unraveling at home, they have to maintain their “perfect couple” facade for their friends as they prepare from the big party. The anniversary seems an odd one to celebrate with a big party but we learn that a 40th anniversary party had been canceled after Geoff had a health crisis. The 45 year mark might seem like a good substitute for a couple where there are questions about whether the husband will make it to the 50th.

45 YEARS is exquisitely acted with Rampling giving a tour-de-force performance of such subtle power it is breathtaking. The subtle, sensitive way this story is told adds to its strength, an quiet yet powerful exploration of emotions and perceptions. Rampling is astounding, and while Courtenay is excellent, it is her performance dominates in this film. While Courtenay’s emotions are all on the surface, even where Geoff is less forthcoming on his thoughts, Rampling’s performance is all subtlety and small gestures. In the final sequence, a series of emotions play across her face indicating she is seeing her husband in a new and unwelcome way, one that undermines all she believes about her marriage.

The film ends as a shattering realization dawns on Kate, while she is surrounded by people at the festive party. The epiphany is one that she must face going forward, and effect on the audience is devastating, despite the subtle way it unfolds across Rampling’s face and through her body language. It is a haunting scene, painful and inevitable, one that will linger in the mind just as 45 YEARS does.

45 YEARS OPENS IN ST. LOUIS ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH AT LANDMARK’S PLAZA FRONTENAC CINEMA

OVERALL RATING:  5 OUT OF 5 STARS