In cinemas February 20.
Directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Enduring Love and Venus) and written by frequent screenwriting collaborator Hanif Kureishi, Le Week-End is
a strange little film. Equally saddening and heartwarming, there is a
resounding truthfulness and romanticism to this study of a veteran
married British couple, Nick and Meg Burrows (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay
Duncan). Celebrating their 30th
wedding anniversary with a rare exotic escape in Paris they are amidst a
disillusioning crisis that they seem aloof to resolving. Will this
weekend heal their wounds, or be an opportunity to say goodbye? Lightly
avoiding sentimentality and punishing misery I found this quite
delightful.
Both academics – Nick is a philosophy professor, Meg a biology
teacher – are experiencing an unsettlement in their long-term
contentedness. What soon becomes clear is that Nick is anxious about
money, amongst several other ailments. He is harbouring a secret he
fears to disclose to Meg and is wracked with the nerve-shredding sense
that he and Meg have lost their spark altogether. He remains firmly
committed to a woman he fears doesn’t love him anymore. Being the kind
of man he is, there could be no one else. Does she feel the same way
about him? Meg finds that her sexuality has awakened, just as Nick seems
to have lost all hope. One of the most affecting moments is when Nick
sits alone drinking through their mini bar stock listening to Nick
Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’ on his headphones.
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