Released March 10, 2017.
Because I have read and admired The Sense of an Ending (2011) by Julian Barnes, I sought to watch the 2017 film based on this novel.Yes, the book is more complex and thoughtful than the film, but the director and actors did a credible job exploring themes of memory, regret, consequences, and perspectivity.
The film stars Jim Broadbent as Tony Webster, a divorced man who avoids conflict with others and has very few intimate relationships. He has one child, a daughter, but he keeps her at arm's length.
During the course of the film, he receives a letter from an attorney regarding a journal written by Adrian, a college friend who died decades earlier. Both he and Adrian dated the same young woman, Veronica.
The journal was willed to him by Veronica's mother. Receiving this letter sets Tony to recall various events from his university days involving Veronica, Tony, and a host of others on the periphery of these relationships.
The film cuts between the past and the present. In the present, Tony reconnects with Veronica (played by Charlotte Rampling) in an attempt to receive Adrian's diary.
In order to avoid spoilers, I will just say that Tony's view on past events is incomplete and contorted. He also has to review some of the choices he made and the consequences of those choices.
It's a good film about how we carry the past with us and how the past can transform over time. See the film, but also read the novel, which won the Man Booker Prize.
Related
Sense of an Ending: Book Review
