THE PLOT THUS FAR
Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (IRIS, TOPSY-TURVY, ANOTHER YEAR) and Lindsay Duncan (ABOUT TIME, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, MANSFIELD PARK) give exquisite performances as Nick and Meg, a long-married British couple revisiting Paris for the first time since their honeymoon in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“Le Week-End” is a film about old people bickering on a trip. Well, it’s also about a marriage and how hard it is to keep the spark alive after so many years living with someone that at one point was a complete stranger. Jim Broadbent is played as so easy to please, that you almost want Jeff Goldblum to smack the hell out of him when they catch up. But, is it fair to treat the wife as the source of the problems? She is her own person and her identity is never treated with equal gravitas.
There’s something about taking a weekend trip to a foreign city that seems alien to most Americans. While it’s meant to provide exotic flights of fancy for serious subject matter, it also makes the film seem like the deluded fantasy of a rich couple on vacation. It also hurts that everyone sounds like they are starring on a retirement age version of The Gilmore Girls. What I would do to have a Ken Loach level of slumming vocabulary thrown into the mix. Broadbent is a Mike Leigh alum and he should be able to make the dialogue sound far more realistic.
The DVD comes with commentary, featurettes, interviews, illustrations, dance tutorial and a trailer as the special features. The A/V Quality is pretty sharp for a foreign romantic comedy. The Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 tracks hold up for what they are. Still, I wish the transfer would’ve been a little more defined. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!