Stella and Gerry might not have a bad marriage, but they don’t have especially healthy one either. In the new film “Midwinter Break,” out Friday, these two Irish empty nesters beautifully portrayed by Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds have become the embodiment of the words “alone together” in their late 60s and early 70s. She goes to church. He reads, and drinks, and passes out on the recliner. Repeat. But one Christmas Eve, Stella decides to break the monotony: She books a trip for two to Amsterdam, departing as soon as possible. Gerry beams that it’s a fantastic idea and off they go to try to get out of their routine and maybe remember why they made this lifelong commitment in the first place.
An adaptation of a Bernard MacLaverty novel of the same name, “Midwinter Break” is a delicate film that stays in a minor key, but whose impact is profound if you can get on its level. Directed by theater veteran Polly Findlay making her feature debut, the film parachutes the audience into the current state of this relationship, in all its quietly contradictory beauty.
These are two people who have walked through most of their adult lives together, raising a child, living a self-imposed exile in Glasgow and now sort of watching the clock tick down on their lives. The film teases that something violent and traumatic happened many years ago in Belfast, but that they don’t talk about that, or the Troubles, at all.
We gather that nothing quite so dramatic has happened since, but you can see the distress in Stella’s face as she sits down for the nth time to remove the plastic wrap to eat some sandwiches she prepared while Gerry sleeps. It seems both then and now, they’ve opted for a change of location instead of a serious chat about things. But there’s nothing like a new location to bring all that buried discontent to the surface.
One of the loveliest things about “Midwinter Break” is how it lets Stella and Gerry be all things at once. In some moments, they’re loving and intimate, sharing a sweet before their flight takes off, laughing in the red-light district and resting their tired feet in their nice hotel room. Other times, they seem like strangers. Stella has only grown more devout as they’ve gotten older, while Gerry can’t be bothered to even accompany her to church. Later in the film, they’ll both explain why, though not to each other.
Amsterdam in winter is expectedly picturesque, and the film makes sure to have Stella and Gerry out in the fresh air as much as possible visiting real sites around town (though the interiors of the Anne Frank House were a recreation). It’s tempting to draw comparisons to the “Before” series, but Jesse and Celine are a little chattier than these two.
This is a relationship that’s all about the small moments and what’s left unsaid, which is tricky to compellingly execute on film. There aren’t big fights or particularly mean words said: And yet when Stella, nearly shaking with nerves, quietly proposes a possible change to their lives, it feels earth shattering. You’re relieved later when she wants to go out and have some fun; Gerry is too.
These may just be the ordinary, dull rhythms of a relatively stable relationship, and yet these actors make the mundane so much more. It was a brilliant stroke to let “Midwinter Break,” which could have been deadly in the transition from the page to the screen, rest on these two actors in particular, sharing the big screen for the first time. Our investment in Stella and Gerry raises real questions about long-term commitment, assumptions of stability and the possibility of change. It might also have you planning your own Amsterdam getaway in your head, hopefully with fewer weighted silences on the schedule.
“Midwinter Break,” a Focus Features release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “some strong language, bloody images, alcoholism, suggestive material and thematic material.” Running time: 90 minutes. Three stars out of four.
