Another Year - Mike Leigh nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay

Another Year, the hidden story behind the surface

Download the full script here | Story synopsis

Mike Leigh, nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay, performs greatly his screenwriting skills in his work of Another Year, a 2010 British comedy-drama.

The most captivating dynamics of this story of Another Year is precisely the story that remains written in between the lines. At first sight, it tends to feel static thanks to the longer observational pauses and focus placed on life of people at the crossroad of their retirement.

However, the most interesting part of the film is the discovery that the main protagonists are actually the human relationships between the main and side characters. Especially useful is the insight we obtain from the last dinner scene (the closing one) where we finally can see the true face of Gerri and Tom, the perfect couple. This is where the brilliance of this script booms, in the words that have not been pronounced explicitly but the information shouts out loud enough so that the spectator finally understands all the tricks of the fusion between the apparent and the real good human deeds.

It is not only the mastery of uncovering the middle class hypocrisy but the brilliant role of the unbalanced friend Mary who actually serves as a driver to become the entertainment to this couple of great achievements and good will from a fulfilled marriage with a son who follows the same journey. Their son, also pursuing a career of social improvement, is actually arrogant, superficial and offensive to other cultures, which we can perceive from a single word "yummy". He is paired with another good will professional, a girl that perfectly matches the standards of his family that entertains itself with the bad luck of others, but that obviously is disguised at a master level behind a professional career.

Through the misery of the wrecked personalities of their unhappy friends, this couple builds their happy routine year after year. But if we pay a closer attention to the few words they employ when they actually "help" their friends, we discover that they are using their misery for their personal entertainment in their quite a boring life of Mr and Mrs perfect gardeners. They pretend generously sharing the fruits of their garden - tomatoes while the victims of their generosity actually give them all they have, their hopes, defeats, love and human mistakes that make life so real.


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