Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville in Midwinter Break.Mark de Blok//Supplied
Midwinter Break
Directed by Polly Findlay
Written by Bernard MacLaverty and Nick Payne
Starring Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds
Classification PG; 90 mins
Opens in select theatres Feb. 20
Years ago, an older colleague set me straight about the expectations one can have of a spouse. “He is never going to pick up his socks,” she said of her husband of three decades. “No matter how many times I tell him. He may remember for a few days. But the socks will be there at the end of the week.”
Some habits are hard to break, and my colleague had made her peace with what she considered a minor annoyance. Most marriages are filled with such anecdotes. When you’ve lived together for so long, you learn to adjust, getting through the days with jokes, quarrels or other distractions. Or you eventually get fed up, and join the ranks of the rising numbers of grey divorcees.
Midwinter Break isn’t about the state of marriage, per se – not like more recent films such as Marriage Story or Force Majeure. Instead, it’s a look at a long-time married couple, now in the midwinter of their lives and marriage, offering a reflection on what can keep us together even as we drift apart.
Stella and Gerry (Oscar nominees Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds) are a retired Irish couple, living in Glasgow. Their days are routine. Gerry prefers to stay home, waving off Stella’s invitation to join her for a church service. When Stella returns from church, Gerry is asleep on the couch, passed out after another round of solitary drinking.
Sitting in the kitchen, eating cold sandwiches by herself, Stella has a brainwave. She books a trip to Amsterdam for both of them. Gerry is delighted by the surprise, and the two set off. The holiday offers a break from their daily humdrum chores. At first, they revel in their new surroundings, taking in the sights and sounds. But soon, old habits start to creep back in. Stella is looking for a higher purpose in her life, while Gerry cannot rein in his drinking.
Manville and Hinds in Midwinter Break.Mark de Blok//Supplied
The vacation brings them to a crossroads. They have differing perspectives on old memories. It’s harder to turn a blind eye to annoying habits. Will they continue to repeat their mantra – “Me and you; you and me”?
The film is based on an acclaimed novel by Bernard MacLaverty, with first-time feature director Polly Findlay at the helm, posing questions about faith and commitment, and what makes love endure rather than become an endurance. It’s set against the beautiful backdrop of a European city, with walkways beside waterways, and a history that is both tragic and uplifting – following the long-established tradition of Irish literature. And it’s solidly focused on its two central characters.
The story gives us ample time to get to know Stella and Gerry, along with a terrible moment during the Troubles, Northern Ireland’s three-decade sectarian conflict, that hangs over them. The film is unhurried in its pace, and sparse in dialogue – allowing Manville and Hinds to find the rhythm of a 40-year marriage through gestures and things that are left unsaid.
Hinds and Manville in Midwinter Break.Mark de Blok//Supplied
By all accounts, the novel on which the film is based unflinchingly lays bare the distance that has slowly grown between the old couple, as well as their tenderness for each other. Readers get to know the couple deeply, and indulge in the specificities of their holiday’s everyday minutiae through vividly written prose. It is the kind of authorial treatment that makes us care about the characters and become invested in the potential rupture in their lives.
The movie version doesn’t have the capacity for that kind of immersion. MacLaverty likely helped screenwriter Nick Payne to translate passages of the book into small scenes. Gerry peering into the bathroom mirror, not recognizing the reflection staring back at him. A glimpse of Stella’s mean streak. But in dispensing with the details, the viewer doesn’t get a fulsome sense of the couple’s motivations, even if they might ruefully recognize small parts of themselves in Stella and Gerry’s disagreement.
Fortunately, Midwinter Break stars two seasoned actors who are not even close to the winter of their careers. Both bring grace and gravitas to their characters, conveying their personal crises with humanity. It’s wonderful to see an older couple take centre stage, and hold our attention as they wander about a new city, rediscovering each other – faults and all. The resolution, however, is a little too pat, making you wonder if Stella and Gerry just needed to book some sessions with a marriage counsellor.
Would they have even considered that option? Will they make it once they are back in Glasgow? I have placed a hold on the novel at my library to figure out.