A growing awareness of the “silver pound” has seen a flurry of films aimed at older audiences. The couple at the heart of Le Week-End may be approaching pensionable age, but it is a far cry from the comfortable territory of Quartet et al. This particular love story is heavy on the bitter, and even the sweet comes with an acerbic edge.
Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) are celebrating their anniversary with a weekend in Paris, the site of their honeymoon thirty years earlier. The city doesn’t seem to have changed much but it is increasingly clear that Nick and Meg are no longer the same people. The question is whether the gap that now lies between them can still be bridged. Life has left them both disappointed and so, it seems, has love.
Tension is brought to a head by a chance encounter with Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), Nick’s former colleague whose success has now far eclipsed his one-time mentor. Nick exudes an air of resignation, having watched his promise wither away unfulfilled and his future diminishing before him. His melancholy is in no way relieved by his adored wife, who veers wildly between flirtatious coquette and emasculating shrew. Nick struggles to keep up, but it’s obvious that he will always be at a disadvantage. The invisible link between them is clear despite the endless bickering and power struggles, but the audience are kept guessing right until the film’s end whether their shared past is enough to build a new future.
Le Week-End could almost be considered a coming-of-age film, dealing as it does with that almost universal moment when we realise our dreams are not going to come true, and reality has been a disappointment. It may not be cosy viewing, but its bitterness is the perfect antidote to the wish fulfillment fantasies that dominate mainstream cinema. It turns out that happy ever after takes an awful lot of work.