Tonight I saw The Sense of An Ending, starring Jim Broadbent and Harriet Walter.
Years ago when a friend recommended the book of the same name, by Julian Barnes, I was taken by it immediately. Tonight, when I saw the film, I found it hard to stay interested.
Tony (Broadbent) is divorced from Margaret (Walter). They remain friendly and share a grown daughter, Susie (Michelle Dockery) whom they dote upon in equal measure.
When Tony receives a random inheritance from his college girlfriend's mother, a lifetime of memories come to the surface as he seeks closure he never properly confronted.
Yep, that's it.
And it's drawn out so slowly and with such dramatic exception that the "big reveal" (which I, as a reader, had admittedly forgotten) was quite anti-climactic. In a way you feel bad for the main character, but in a way you can see why everyone in his life seems to be frustrated with him.
All of the acting is fine, the flashbacks are believable, the story at its core is tragic—it was just missing the heart and the complexity of the original story here, which was quite disappointing.
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