Cinematic adaptations of short stories can seem like a risky business, but writer/director Andrew Haigh finds the emotional power that a single revelation can hold over decades of history. The film spans a week in the lives of British couple Geoff and Kate Mercer (Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling) leading up to a party for their 45th wedding anniversary, after Geoff learns that the body of his girlfriend before Kate—lost during a Swiss mountaineering holiday—has been discovered. Haigh brilliantly structures the story around the routines of the Mercers’ lives like a morning dog walk, providing a framework for details about Geoff’s previous relationship that affect each of them in different ways. And the two lead performances are magnificent: Courtenay conveying Geoff's struggle to avoid contemplating a life that never was, and Rampling the crumbling belief that the life she had was ever meant to be. It all builds to a finale that captures two colliding realities in the lives of these two people: the profound wish to focus on the happiness of those 45 years, and the suspicion that nothing can be the same after this one week.
By
Scott Renshaw