Category Archives: Flirting

Another Year (2010)

From NetFlix:

Over the course of a tumultuous year, contented medical counselor Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and her geologist husband, Tom (Jim Broadbent), see their friends and relations through a series of happy events and heartbreaks — including a birth and a death. Imelda Staunton and Oliver Maltman co-star in this character-driven ensemble dramedy from writer-director Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky, Vera Drake, Secrets & Lies).

British in every sense: quiet, perfectly acted, not a pretty or handsome face to be seen, miserable teeth, and downright depressing.

More than anything, this film is a study in faces. Have you any idea how difficult it is for an actor when the camera stays fixedly focused on that actor’s face ? Just watch Lesley Manville’s character Mary tell the whole story with the mere movement of her eyes. I could have watched her for the entire film’s length.

Another theme here is loneliness.

What is really scary is that we all know people just like the characters in the story. Mary is an aging lonely neurotic alcoholic who never managed to reach a sensible maturity. Ken is a lonely overweight man who is slowly but surely drinking and eating himself to death. Tom’s widower brother is a zombie who has no idea how to go on living after the death of his wife and whose estranged son is a real mental case.

Another theme is kindness and love.

Tom and Gerri (OK, laugh it up) are an older couple in love and very kind people who try to help Mary and Ken. Mary desperately flirts with the couple’s much younger son Joe and acts like an abandoned lover when Joe gets a wonderful girlfriend Kate. Even then Gerri can forgive Mary’s outrageous behavior.

Although I have done my best to paint a really depressing picture, do not miss this pitch perfect production.

Eureka (2006)

From NetFLix:

The premiere season of this quirky sci-fi series kicks off with stranded U.S. Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) wandering into a remote town populated by geniuses, a not-so-sleepy hamlet harboring a slew of government secrets and bizarre mysteries. Assuming the duties of sheriff, Carter navigates the strange goings on in Eureka, including alien abductions, control-freak computers, poisonous pollens and more.

NetFlix offers 4 seasons in 5 packages. Season 3 has parts A and B. Season 1 was a package of 3 DVDs.

Think Warehouse 13 (2009) and you get the flavor of a mixture of (probably very bad) science and comedy. In Eureka Sheriff Jack Carter does friendly battle with his rebellious daughter following his separation from his wife. And he flirts with the not-yet-divorced wife of the directory of the science foundation. There are lots of funny comments: “Do you dream of world domination ? – Well, not all the time.” Not to be taken seriously. It’s just fun sci-fi from the SyFy channel.

Note that Saul Rubinek, who was one of the main characters (Artie Nielson) in “Warehouse 13”, has a part in one of the Season 1 episodes.