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PEOPLE & ARTSMonday 28 December 2015

Film Review: ‘45 Years’ a devastating time bomb

JAKE COYLE In it, Rampling stars as ful, harmonious lives in rural
AP Film Writer half of a childless couple England: dog walks, drink-
How many great movies — Kate and Geoff (Tom ing tea and taking leisurely
could be written across the Courtenay) Mercer — pre- trips into town.
enigmatic, profound face paring to celebrate their That such appearances
of Charlotte Rampling? 45th anniversary. In min- of elderly tranquility are
Hundreds? Thousands? At utes, we can already feel not what they seem is one
any rate, Andrew Haigh’s jealousy welling in us from of the notions upended
“45 Years” is one of them. snapshots of their peace- by “45 Years.” A letter ar-

This photo provided by Agatha A. Nitecka shows Tom Courte-
nay, left, as Geoff and Charlotte Rampling as Kate in Andrew
Haigh’s film, “45 Years,” a Sundance Selects Release.

(Courtesy of Agatha A. Nitecka via AP)

rives for Geoff with startling accumulates as they ex-
news that the frozen body amine their night together
of the woman he dated and contemplate their
before meeting Kate has connection.
been found in a Swiss gla- For Haigh, relationships are
cier where she died in an forged in a moment, crys-
accident while traveling talized in the circumstanc-
with Geoff more than 50 es of their beginnings. Kate
years ago. “Like something and Geoff may be in their
in the freezer,” mumbles 70s, but their marriage is still
an astonished Geoff. built upon — and haunted
“She’d look like what she by — whatever brought
did in 1962,” he says. “And them together in their 20s.
I look like this.” Old age has done far less
The news unsettles Geoff, to change them than most
transporting him back to would think.
his mid-20s self, unmoor- The devastating power of
ing an iceberg of the past. “45 Years,” which Haigh
Confessions follow, reveal- adapted from David Con-
ing a deeper history than stantine’s short story “In An-
Kate was before aware. other Country,” lies in the
She watches with increas- director’s sensitive under-
ing alarm as her husband standing of relationships:
begins smoking again and of the conversations that
rummaging around the at- take place over pillows
tic late at night for pictures and the quiet contempla-
of his old flame. Their previ- tion of fates abandoned in
ously rock-solid relationship marriage.
is suddenly beset with fis- But it’s Haigh’s tremendous
sures and tremors erupted lead actors that make the
by a history that isn’t so an- movie. They’re a convinc-
cient, after all. ing couple: Courtenay is
Haigh, who is 42, has made absent-minded and un-
the HBO series “Looking” tidy; Rampling is cool and
and the excellent inde- controlled. As Kate sees a
pendent film “Weekend.” new rival to her husband
That movie dealt with two rise from the dead, the
gay men whose one-night anxieties and confusions
stand is extended across flicker across Rampling’s
a weekend, during which face. Turmoil stirs beneath
a remarkable intimacy her chilly stillness.q