I walked out of the screening of Another Year with a quote from Eddie Izzard’s stand-up routine “Dresses to Kill” in my head. I know it’s an odd comment but bear with me for a second. Izzard said during his routine: “…kind of ‘a room with a view with a staircase and a pond’-type movies. Films with very fine acting, but the drama is rather sort of subsued and – subsumed … You know, just folded in and everything’s people opening doors. ‘Oh, I’m – oh, what? Well, I’ve – oh.’ ‘What is it, Sebastian? I’m arranging matches.’ ‘Well, I – I thought you – … I’d better go.’ ‘Yes, I think you’d better had.’”

This is very much that kind of an English film, but this one is at its best, where the strong subtleties of the characters are so well done that they can compete with the explosions of American cinema…

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