Le Week-End

Synopsis: Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary with a visit to their honeymoon city, Paris. They head off for a weekend in which tensions and regrets surface but when they run into Nick’s old colleague, Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), issues between them are brought to a head.

The trailers for this film make it look like a soppy romance in which sixty-somethings try to revive their relationship on a second honeymoon. But the truth of the film is far less frivolous. Rather, it is one of those clever, bitter-sweet comedies that manages to get into the nuts and bolts of a long term relationship and deliver it up with enough accuracy to make for laughter, sadness, and, at times, considerable discomfort.

There is much here that will be instantly recognisable, especially to viewers in the age demographic of Nick and Meg. We share in their easy companionship but we are also witness to the countless aggravations and sandpaper moments that come with knowing each other too well.  We are also keenly aware of the disappointments that life has dealt them, along with the regret of growing old – aching body parts, lack of sexual desire for one’s partner, the longing for a lost youth, the desire to possibly reinvent oneself – the list goes on.

The teaming of director Michell (Notting Hill) and writer, Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette), is a winning one. The balance of comedy and real frustration embodied in the natural dialogue and the shrewd observation of a close relationship keeps us always engaged in the emotional roller-coaster that the weekend presents to Nick and Meg. 

Central to the strengths of this film are the two wonderful performances by the lead actors. There is something almost girlish about the lovely Duncan as her Meg alternates between furious, coquettish, sarcastic, mischievous and bored. Broadbent’s Nick is generally a far more even-tempered fellow, riding equably through his wife’s verbal assaults, though we get some surprising insights into what his youth was probably like at later points in the film. It is a delight to see Jeff Goldblum back in a rewarding role. The character of Morgan could have run the risk of being over-the-top, but Goldblum plays it to a perfect pitch. Young Olly Alexander in the minor role of Morgan’s son is also impressive. 

Paris, of course, has a certain allure and the city is used to grand effect here. From the moment Meg decides she doesn’t like Nick’s choice of hotel and heads for an extravagantly upmarket one, we are treated to the city’s iconically romantic charm. It is a quality which  brings out some of the best and worst in the couple, from a child-like playfulness through to confrontations that threaten to derail their adventure. Finally, joy of joys, music is not overused and when it is used such wonderfully melancholy songs as Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” are notably effective.

It’s a sign of the times that more films dealing with the meaning of love in the older years are coming onto the market. Le Week-End is a worthy addition to a now well-stocked sub-genre.

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