Midwinter Break – Film Review

Director – Polly Findlay
Writers – Bernard MacLaverty, Nick Payne
Stars – Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds, Julie Lamberton

Gerry (Ciaran Hinds) and Stella (Lesley Manville) are an ageing couple living in Glasgow. Originally from Belfast, the couple fled during “the Troubles” to Glasgow, where they have made their lives. Their only son is long married and has a family of his own.

Stella is a devout practising Roman Catholic, but Gerry is non-committal about his faith. He, a retired architect, never attends Mass, even at Christmas. His spiritual life he finds in the bottle. He drinks openly with Stella but also secretively, which he thinks Stella does not notice, but she does. Stella, as a surprise Christmas present, buys them a weekend break in Amsterdam. They visit the various sites of the city but Stella, alone, seeks out a medieval convent which historically housed unmarried women who wanted to devote themselves to a life of service. There she encounters Kathy (Niamh Cusack), who explains that the institution is not now quite what it was and Stella imagined it to be. However, Kathy is a sounding board, and Stella is able to talk to Kathy. Throughout the film, Director Polly Findlay, in flashbacks, gives small glimpses of a traumatic event which haunts Stella.

A great deal of the film is concerned with Gerry and Stella sightseeing in Amsterdam, and the cinematography reveals the city in all its varied, understated and beguiling charm. Gerry and Stella observe it all as individuals; they never appear to be engaged by it as a couple eventhough they are for the most part observing it together. They never come together as one. There is a distance between them which is of long standing, and it has become their norm.

The strength of the film is the measured and undemonstrative performances of Hinds and Manville. It is a master class in silences and emotions remaining unexpressed. Manville wants something more from their relationship, and her facial expressions often appear to show her sense of disappointment.

Gerry and Stella have been together a long time as husband and wife. They have discovered that they have little in common other than doing what they have always done. The trip to Amsterdam exposes the void. Little happens, but it is an insight into a couple who have not been entirely able to accommodate each other in the daily tasks of living under the one roof as a married couple of many years standing. Out of this limited dramatic material, both Manville and Hinds give, unsurprisingly, first-rate performances.