Details of Mike Leigh’s latest effort, “Another Year,” have finally been unveiled through the Cannes website with the film is set to premiere at the festival on May 15th.
Starring a number of Leigh mainstays including Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wright and Oliver Maltman, the film evidently centers on a married couple (played by Broadbent and Sheen) in a sure-to-be improvised, slice-of-life manner, separated by the four seasons of a particular year.
A very in-depth but, considering Leigh’s style, probably not too spoiler-ish synopsis details a colorful batch of characters in the life of our lead couple, including their son Joe and his partner Katie; work colleague Mary; and brother Ronnie and his estranged son Carl — all of whom are in very different stages of their lives and affect our protagonists in different ways, and who congregate for what appears to be a final, impromptu gathering that’ll serve as a potentially riotous and hilarious climax.
It definitely has the recipe for a fascinating, accomplished work especially in the hands of Leigh and his successful but insane, method-like process. The film is, of course, Leigh’s follow up to 2008’s charming and popular “Happy-Go-Lucky” and should see a release sometime in the fall stateside through Focus Features.