"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." That quote by Mignon McLaughlin is the perfect description of Roger Michell's "Le Week-End:" The film explores the existential crisis of marriage once one reaches old age and questions whether its characters are truly able to fall in love with one another once more time.
A British couple Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) travel to Paris for their anniversary. As the film opens, everything seems to be pleasant between the two as they travel from one sector of Paris to another. However, the tension starts to build throughout their journey until their emotional problems come to the forefront and not only threaten to ruin their weekend, but the rest of their lives.
Michell portrays his story with relaxed tone. There is no immediate danger or difficulty in the opening scenes. The characters simply converse quite casually until they reach their first speed bump: the hotel. Meg is quite unimpressed by the venue her husband has chosen for their stay (she calls it a coffin) and forces him to a pricey hotel to spend the weekend. The scene hints at what is to come, but remains light in its touches. The big moment of tension comes a few scenes later when Nick receives a call from their son. The two shot of the Meg and Nick looking over Paris soon turns into a close-up of Meg as Nick slides out of frame and into his conversation. The camera remains fixed on Meg as she stares out into the city. Her expression is severe and even though she barely moves, she creates the sense of a ticking time-bomb about to explode.
At that point, the tension has been clearly established but it takes more time for Michell and his fine performers to full flesh out the details. In one scene, the two characters reveal to one another that they have just quit their respective jobs. In another, Meg refuses to let her husband touch her. The jovial tone slowly dissipates in scenes between the two until it snowballs into a major break. It is in this final act of the film that the thematic issues of the characters really come to the forefront and transform a rather casual piece into a sobering one filled with existential questions.
Broadbent's insecure Nick seems content to keep his life with his wife as it is, but he slowly questions whether anything that he has done in his life has had any significance to the people he loves most; in fact, for him it seems that the very people he never expected anything from care more for him than those he has dedicated his entire life to. Meanwhile Meg seems to question whether her husband truly loves and desire her or if he is simply there because he depends on her.
In the midst of these two characters is Jeff Goldblum's Morgan, an old friend of Nick's who is currently looking for a fresh start and a chance to enter old age with a greater sense of satisfaction. It is a meeting between Morgan and Nick that seems to truly outline the philosophical questions posed throughout the script: Will starting over really rid Morgan of his past mistakes or problems? Will it really give him the satisfaction that he seeks or will his story simply repeat itself?
The performances here are all top notch with Goldblum stealing every single scene he is in. He is charismatic and kind towards others, but his non-stopped talking emphasizes his self-centered nature and provides a tremendous counterpoint to the often reserved and increasingly quiet performance from Broadbent. Nick starts off as a rather jovial fellow, but the increasing tension with Meg reveal his insecurities. Meanwhile, Duncan's Meg becomes increasingly frenetic, the aforementioned time-bomb getting closer to its seemingly inevitable explosion.
The drama is heavily subdued throughout the first half of the film and has the tendency to feel slow; however, Michell and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi fill the opening acts with moments of truthful everyday life. Meg forces Nick around the city because she cannot settle on a restaurant in one sequence. In another Nick, Meg and Morgan dance about in a small café after enduring a rough afternoon.
"Le Week-End" is not only abundant in charm and delight, but it is a highly sophisticated work of art that analyzes the difficulty of marriage and love as life reaches the finish line.
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