“There are a lot of old people in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That’s not just a generalization, it’s fact. With all of the recent controveries over what was and wasn’t nominated, there’s been a lot of details swirling around about the membership that makes up the Academy. Up to now (there’s talk of changing this), membership was for life, so over time, you can see how you could end up with a high average age. I bring this up because the Academy tends to love old people movies. In recent years, look at the love films like Amour and Nebraska have gotten. So it seems completely within reason that this year’s wildcard best actress nominee would benefit from that particular taste, which is what happened with Charlotte Rampling being nominated for her work in 45 Years. You could also argue she benefit from some perceived category fraud on the part of a couple other contenders, but let’s not get into that now (we’ll save it for my pre-oscars recap).
In this film, Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay’s Kate and Geoff are days away from celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary, when they receive some news that shakes up their relationship, calling into question what the past 45 years have really be all about.
It was a fine film, but it just wasn’t for me. However, I can totally see how it would resonate with those who voted it in. I just found it slow and uneventful. I found myself trying to build out some of the mystery of it to make it more exciting, but there wasn’t really enough to keep that going. I often don’t connect too much with these wildcard entries that don’t otherwise have any visibility during awards season (there’s one every year, think Marion Cotillard for last year’s Two Days, One Night or Demian Bichir in A Better Life a few years back). At least I had earned myself a gift certificate for the theater that plays these indie awards darling films by winning a stairclimbing contest at work, so all it cost me to get there was the half hour trek each way in the previous night’s snow .
45 Years – \m/ \m/ \n”