Having just returned from a vacation in the city of lights, I was both excited and delighted to watch the latest offering from Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Hyde Park on Hudson) and writer Hanif Kureishi (My beautiful Launderette, The Buddha of Surburbia) Le Week-End starring the inimitable Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan and Jeff Goldblum.
Broadbent and Duncan play a long-married couple Nick and Meg who revisit Paris for a long weekend for the first time since their honeymoon, in hopes of rekindling their relationship-or, perhaps, to bring it to an end. Nick is reticent and wistful whilst Meg is demanding and take-charge.
The movie excels at showing the couple flip-flop between harmony and disharmony to resignation and back again as they take stock and grapple with love, loss, regret and disappointment in their own very English way. Tensions rise even further when Meg and Nick run into Nick’s insufferably successful old friend Morgan, an American academic superstar with a fancy Parisian address played by the delightful Jeff Goldblum.
The one thing that elevates this movie is watching veterans of the craft mastering subtle yet impactful acting. I very much felt like a fly on the wall following Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan playing a couple who have clearly had many decades together. Their incredible chemistry even when they are fighting is mesmerizing to watch and I couldn’t decide whether I was routing for them to stay together or willing them to break apart. Just at the point when you begin to feel a little more uncomfortable about being present during this couple’s unraveling, Jeff Goldblum brings some respite in the form of comedy. His quirky yet intriguing character is just what we need as we need as we head into act three
Hanif Kureishi’s wonderfully poetic screenplay is admirable to watch. Filled with witty dialogue and heartfelt conversation, this adds a layer of richness to this already beautifully performed movie
Overall, I enjoyed my weekend with this couple although I felt the movie was just shy of greatness. Higher highs and lower lows would have made elevated this movie from very good to excellent.
Le Week-End will be will be opening on Friday 14 March at The Landmark in West L.A. and Angelika NY, Lincoln Plaza in New York. Check local listings
