ANOTHER YEAR

Another Year offers a moving portrait of a marriage that has remained loving and steady for more than 30 years. Tom and Gerri’s simple, passionate relationship becomes a source of happiness and stability for friends and family members facing loneliness, alcoholism, depression and grief.

The film is episodic and slow. Some of the other characters, especially Mary, are more dynamic than Tom and Gerri, and the movie’s politically correct elements, foul language, alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking and brief marijuana reference slightly diminish its positive moral content. Still, the Christian funeral, Scripture reading and prayer in Jesus Christ’s name add meaningful overt Christian content.

If you are an older teenager or adult who can exercise discernment about the mature material, Another Year is worth seeing.

Tom and Gerri are an aging British couple whose enduring marriage anchors the people around them. Across a series of seasonal vignettes, their friends and family members weather loneliness, depression, alcoholism, difficulty finding love and grief.

Tom and Gerri’s home becomes a place where troubled people gather. Their quiet, faithful love stands in sharp contrast to the sadness surrounding them.

Three stars means this is a good, moving film with noticeable limitations. Another Year is warm, heartfelt and morally thoughtful. Its episodic, character-driven approach creates a simple portrait of ordinary lives, and the contrast between Tom and Gerri’s happiness and the melancholy of others effectively highlights marriage’s power to provide stability.

The pace is deliberately slow, which suits Tom and Gerri but may test some viewers. Their characters can feel flat and inactive beside more dynamic figures such as Mary. Lesley Manville is brilliant as Mary, who sometimes feels like the movie’s central character.

Another Year presents a strong, morally uplifting view of marriage. Tom and Gerri’s lasting love is treated as a source of happiness, stability and hope. The film also includes overt Christian elements through a Christian funeral, Scripture read aloud and prayer in Jesus Christ’s name.

The movie’s worldview is not entirely consistent with that moral vision. It includes politically correct elements involving environmentalism and anti-capitalism, including comments about the environment, carbon footprints and big corporations. It also includes one brief homosexual joke, troubled characters, and a brief conversation about smoking marijuana. These elements are presented within a story whose central moral testimony remains positive.

The film’s longing for faithful love and lasting companionship aligns with Scripture’s honor for marriage: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

Another Year is a slow, warm drama that gives marriage a strong and deeply positive moral center. Its mature themes and content call for discernment, but older teenagers and adults may find its portrait of faithful love worthwhile. Our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — AGES 13 AND UP.