My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. When it was over I commented that "it is sort of like reading a novel" and she agreed. That observation is neither good nor bad, depending on what kind of movie one likes to view.
Old favorite Jim Broadbent always seems to create very interesting characters, as he does here. He is Tony Webster, retired but running a camera repair business in London. He also specializes in antique Leica cameras and sells them for handsome prices. This is not just an incidental detail, it has a connection to his college days and the girlfriend who introduced him to cameras and photography.
The hook in this story is when the mother of his former girlfriend, Veronica, dies the will leaves Tony one item, the diary that belonged to Adrian, his former college friend who took up with Veronica when she and Tony broke up. But the solicitor seems to be having difficulty actually getting the diary to give over to Tony.
Tony is persistent, he looks up Veronica's brother and finally finds Veronica, who is very mute about what all is going on, but when pressed she says she burned the diary. All this creates an air of mystery about the whole thing. What is going on? What is she trying to hide? Why is she being so cold to Tony, her old boyfriend?
Charlotte Rampling is effective as the current time version of Veronica Ford, as well as Emily Mortimer who plays Veronica's mother back in the 1960s. The thrust of the story in the movie is that our memories are what we make of them, what we choose to believe, what we think the truth was. In his fading years Tony re-lives much of what has happened in his life and gains some new perspectives.
SPOILERS follow: The movie uses multiple flashbacks to tell of Tony's past, and in one we learn that Adrian actually killed himself, using razor blades in the bathtub. In his sleuthing Tony observes older Veronica hugging a special needs man, also named Adrian, and he assumes it is her son. But it isn't, it is her brother, older Ardian before his suicide had impregnated Veronica's mother, herself a flirt, and we might assume the realization of that drove Adrian to take his own life. Plus the diary Tony never got to see probably had contents about Veronica's mother, things she didn't want others to read.
Old favorite Jim Broadbent always seems to create very interesting characters, as he does here. He is Tony Webster, retired but running a camera repair business in London. He also specializes in antique Leica cameras and sells them for handsome prices. This is not just an incidental detail, it has a connection to his college days and the girlfriend who introduced him to cameras and photography.
The hook in this story is when the mother of his former girlfriend, Veronica, dies the will leaves Tony one item, the diary that belonged to Adrian, his former college friend who took up with Veronica when she and Tony broke up. But the solicitor seems to be having difficulty actually getting the diary to give over to Tony.
Tony is persistent, he looks up Veronica's brother and finally finds Veronica, who is very mute about what all is going on, but when pressed she says she burned the diary. All this creates an air of mystery about the whole thing. What is going on? What is she trying to hide? Why is she being so cold to Tony, her old boyfriend?
Charlotte Rampling is effective as the current time version of Veronica Ford, as well as Emily Mortimer who plays Veronica's mother back in the 1960s. The thrust of the story in the movie is that our memories are what we make of them, what we choose to believe, what we think the truth was. In his fading years Tony re-lives much of what has happened in his life and gains some new perspectives.
SPOILERS follow: The movie uses multiple flashbacks to tell of Tony's past, and in one we learn that Adrian actually killed himself, using razor blades in the bathtub. In his sleuthing Tony observes older Veronica hugging a special needs man, also named Adrian, and he assumes it is her son. But it isn't, it is her brother, older Ardian before his suicide had impregnated Veronica's mother, herself a flirt, and we might assume the realization of that drove Adrian to take his own life. Plus the diary Tony never got to see probably had contents about Veronica's mother, things she didn't want others to read.