5 Films the Academy Ignored: 2014’s Hidden Gems (Part 3)

With this third film we embark into arguable greatness. It’s a lovely little British romantic comedy – not to be mistaken with traditional “romcoms”, which seem to be a genre of their own these days, and often carry negative connotations … but I digress.

It’s Roger Michell’s Le Week-End. In the vein of ’80s Woody Allen and Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, we follow Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg Burrows (Lindsay Duncan) as they return to Paris for their 30th anniversary in order to relive their honeymoon and rekindle the fiery passion that was once there. Within the first few minutes, we see that the fire dwindled long ago.

It would be easy to write a full review for this film, but I’ll simply give you three reasons to see Le Week-End. First, Jeff Goldblum plays Morgan, an old college buddy of Nick’s, now a successful writer living an opulent life surrounded by the academic upper crust of Parisian society. Morgan is wholeheartedly a character, but in a strange way, Goldblum makes him believable. And with the screen time he’s given, he elevates the experience as a whole.

Second, the painfully honest depiction of love, or the lack thereof, propels this film into a higher tier of cinema. The film goes into dark territory with style and wit, allowing the spikes of heart-wrenching truths to stab into the most vital places of the soul. There is a scene where Nick attempts to embrace Meg, to which she repels him. He asks, “Why won’t you ever let me touch you?” To which she replies, “It’s not love, it’s like being arrested.” There are many forthright moments peppered throughout the film, and they hit hard every time.

Finally, as briefly mentioned above, Le Week-End borrows from ’80s Woody Allen, applying Allen’s bourgeois sensibility and great dialogue. Furthermore, it has a loosely comparable structure to Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, where we watch the characters aimlessly wander the streets of Paris for a large portion of the film, seeing their relationship develop through their actions and experiences, rather than long expository scenes that would lessen the impact. In sum, this film struck a chord with me so deeply, it still resonates as I write this piece. Le Week-End is available on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video (currently streaming for free for Amazon Prime users), and iTunes.

Next Film >> 
<< Previous Film

For original article, go to The Film Yap.