This Year's Love (1999)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Great movie, even if the plot is a bit flimsy. I straight-away rated it a 10 because it meets all five of my tests 1. I can follow the story, I never have to ask "what is happening here". That is good writing and directing. (both David Kane) 2. I know who the characters are. I don't have to ask "who is this and what are they doing here". 3. Superb acting, not only the seven main characters, but the others and even the uncredited extras too. That takes good directing to make sure it all happens. 4. Several memorable scenes that stand out for their meaning for the whole movie. 5. Really good dialogue. The right words at the right time. OK, it's not really a story, more a lot of incidents that are skilfully, if loosely tied together. Do real people live like this? I don't, but I've enjoyed watching and listening. Three men and three women rotate partners over the course of two years, and a seventh has a girl-girl incident which fits in with all the other events. It starts with such a happy wedding, but that crashes at the reception when Danny(Douglas Henshall) trashes the wedding cake and storms out. The bride Hannah (Catherine McCormack) is in tears and heads of to the pub to get 'steamboats'. Two years later, they reconnect and head off for the much delayed honeymoon. How sweet. In between, there is an especially good scene on an escalator at a tube station. Hannah going down, Danny going up. They try to chat for a bit, then both turn to take a second look as the stairs take them apart. Very telling. Later, Danny comes to the Supermarket where Hannah is on a check-out and makes a moving, emotional speech. It works. A great performance from Jennifer Ehle too, especially a rather sad scene. There is only one silly scene, Marey and Liam bed-wrestling, with Liam still in his undies… and I 'm wondering, maybe that's how they do sex in Camden? Silly, but hilarious too. A final brief dialogue clip, Danny at the airport bar "She's not going to come…" and the guy next to him says… "I can't imagine why". But Hannah does run in and off they go to Corfu. Great.

For me, this film was lifted by the performances of Ian Harte and Kathy Burke. Both of these actors have had interesting careers in which they've not always made the right choices and here the film would be a much slighter thing without them. Ian Harte is absolutely outstanding - you see him disintegrate before your eyes while Kathy Burke's self-hatred must resonate with many women. It makes a change to see a London that a lot of Brits would recognise with geography that makes sense (apart from the taxi to Heathrow from Camden perhaps?). For all I enjoyed films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, it's nice to see the country I actually live in represented more realistically on screen.

Here's another fine British film, and I have to say it again, the film industry of this island is working fine! And this is exactly the sort of films European cinema in general does better than Hollywood, light comedies about ordinary people, realistic stories about realistic characters without the pretentious tears of the American melodramas. The story spreads over to years focusing on the love affairs of 3 women, Hannah (Catherine McCormack, the beautiful wife of Gibson in Braveheart (1995)), Mary (Kathy Burke, superb in Oldman's Nil by Mouth (1997), also in Elizabeth (1998)) and Sophie (the also beautiful Jennifer Ehle, seen in Wilde (1997)), and 3 men, Danny (Douglas Henshall), Cameron (Dougray Scott) and "I don't remember", who exchange lovers between them and are all linked in this strange way. The story seems to be triggered by the wedding in the starting sequence, but to me it is only the vehicle of introducing the characters. The setting is the Camden Town area of London and the time is today, so we get a glimpse of reality in the English capital. I have to reveal that the humouristic tour de force is the lager shower of Cameron in the pub. For all the sincere and unpretentious cinema a loving 6 out of 10.

If you fancy spending two hours watching unpleasant, self-absorbed characters shag around and bitch about one another witlessly, see this film. If you want to see it done with style, rent a Barry Levinson film or even an Eastenders omnibus. I found this movie totally pointless; the lack of any sort of climax or resolution makes a point about the aimlessness of the characters but makes for very dull viewing. Ian Hart is terrific but Jennifer Ehle is woeful; I've never seen her play a scene without that smirk on her face. Thank God for Kathy Bates, whose blunt tones are a relief during this movie's posturing.