Midwinter Break Review
Polly Findlay’s powerful drama exploring interpersonal and religious tensions in late middle age stands out as a remarkable achievement, avoiding any hint of sentimentalism.
Films about ageing empty-nesters embarking on bittersweet holidays and unexpectedly confronting issues in their relationships are quite common. For example, Le Week-End starred Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as an older couple taking a Eurostar trip to Paris; similarly, in The Leisure Seeker, Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren impulsively travel in a Winnebago. Often, these films carry a soft, fuzzy, and sometimes overly sentimental tone that can feel depressing. However, Polly Findlay’s Midwinter Break, adapted from Bernard MacLaverty’s novel (MacLaverty is also the author of Cal), is a fiercely sad, sharp, and superbly acted film that defies such conventions.
Gerry and Stella, portrayed by Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville, are a late-middle-aged couple originally from Northern Ireland who relocated to Scotland in the 1970s, deeply affected by the Troubles. They are now on a restorative midwinter holiday in Amsterdam. Outwardly, they seem happy and affectionate, but Gerry struggles with a drinking problem, and Stella experiences loneliness due to Gerry’s lack of shared Catholic faith.
While in Amsterdam, Stella is profoundly moved by the Begijnhof, the city’s enclosed 14th-century courtyard that historically sheltered unmarried Catholic women devoted to God. This experience triggers an epiphany for Stella.
She realizes she desires nothing more than to live in such a place. Suddenly, she sees with unflinching clarity how she has always resented Gerry’s genial mockery of her religion; perhaps she has harbored resentment toward him as well. Stella also confides a terrible secret from her time in Northern Ireland to Kathy (played by Niamh Cusack), an Irish expatriate living in Amsterdam, a secret she has never shared before.
While it might seem somewhat straightforward to use the Troubles as a pivotal historical moment for Northern Irish characters, it remains plausible for the generation depicted. The film provides a platform for Hinds and Manville to deliver substantial, intimate, and complex performances rarely afforded to leads in most films. Manville’s portrayal, in particular, is deeply moving.
