Closing on Thursday, October 31st 2013

Meg (Lindsay Duncan) and Nick (Jim Broadbent) have escaped Birmingham set on celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in Paris. She’s a teacher who is thrilled to be freed from the shackles of their mundane grind, while he’s a grouchy, cynical university lecturer with reasons to resent spending money. Their trip to the City of Light serves to illuminate tensions between the couple, with spats and squabbles interrupting the battered affection they show each other. Constantly questioning how their relationship has come to this, things get worse when they bump into an unbearable, successful old friend Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), a man living the life Nick could have had. 

From Hanif Kureshi’s razor sharp script, Roger Michell has created a wonderful autumn years romantic comedy containing sparkling performances from its veteran cast, a film full of pleasures and surprises which is heartbreaking, funny, sad and brutally honest. (Notes by Michael Hayden.)