Pun Salad

How do you feel about movies nearly entirely driven by character instead of plot? That purport to show a slice of real life, as opposed to action and adventure? Where, just like real life, problems aren't neatly resolved at the end of the day?

I think they're… well, I wouldn't want to make them a steady diet. But this movie got hugely good reviews, and Netflix's algorithm promised I'd like it, so…

It centers on British married couple Tom and Gerri over the course of a year, and their interaction with family and friends. It is divided into four seasonal acts. Tom is a geological engineer, Gerri a counselor for the National Health Service. Their most prominent friend is Mary, one of Gerri's co-workers. She's the closest thing the movie has to a plot, as she struggles (but not hard enough) to deal with her fading looks, increasing loneliness, and continual self-absorption. We only see her through the course of the year, but it's pretty easy to guess what came before (drunken promiscuity) and what's going to happen next (bitter spinsterhood, probably also drunken).

Things "happen" over the year, but they are completely ordinary: Tom and Jerry's son, Joe, acquires a bubbly girlfriend. Another one of Gerri's co-workers has a baby. Tom's brother becomes a widower and the family travels up north for the funeral and to support his brother.

The movie (surprisingly) kept my attention throughout; the actors are a snug and natural fit into their roles. It's probably the only one you'll see where the character muses over the amount of mica in his core samples. Tom and Gerri will not remind you of Nick and Nora, Rhett and Scarlett, or Han and Leia. Their dialog doesn't sparkle with witticisms, and their looks are glamour-free. They're just a solidly-married couple trying to be nice, muddling through.