“Every step of the way we walk the line.
Your days are numbered.
So are mine.” – Bob Dylan
Four of the best performances this year come from two films about love and marriage in the twilight years. What’s interesting about both is that they come at a time when the majority of films star and favor youthful stories. It is as though we’re caught in an endless loop of denial. We’re young for such a short amount of time. The rest of our lives are lived (if we’re lucky) as older people. You really can’t know this until you’re well out of your 20s. The entertainment spenders are mostly young people and if they aren’t young people, they’re old people obsessing on youth, beauty and all of the stuff that can’t last. In other words, we mostly torture ourselves.
Michael Haneke and David Frankel. Two brave storytellers, with the courage to really dive into that which we can’t discuss — the whole lives of senior citizens. Even that term — senior citizen — is a way of boxing it up and putting it up on the top shelf where we can’t see it and don’t have to deal with it. That isn’t us. We won’t be the slow driver who cautiously enters the intersection or lingers a little too long at the electronic check-out at the supermarket, or blinks in confusion when someone mentions Facebook or wi-fi. Old people aren’t people, but seemingly disconnected creatures who don’t know anything about the modern world. As you get older you learn the dirty little secret that wisdom translates to a distillation of life’s primary colors.
Michael Haneke’s Amour and David Frankel’s Hope Springs are films that explore the good, the bad and the ugly of life, long term commitment, aging and ultimately, dying. This is the opposite end of the love at first sight, happily ever paradigm as love is so often presented. The main difference between the two couples is that in Amour you know these two people love each other so desperately that there is never a question of keeping their marriage alive; it IS alive. They wake up to talk to each other. They go to sleep in each other’s arms. They respect and adore one another. So that when one has to die, it becomes the most unbearable tragedy of their lives. Is it happily ever after? It was for a time. Until it wasn’t. This is the harsh reality of our lives. We’re all heading towards the end in one way or another. Therefore, the only thing that matters is the time you have left.
In Hope Springs, Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep are at a crossroads. They aren’t a couple who hangs on each other’s every word. They don’t really know who they are. They sleep in separate rooms and can’t bear to touch each other. He falls asleep every night in front of the TV, she curls up alone, more lonely that she’d be if she lived alone. She makes the decision to change things. Either they fix it or they end it.
What is remarkable about Hope Springs and Amour is that the writers do not flinch when it comes to telling the truth. Of all of the violent films we’ve seen this year, nothing could be more uncomfortable than watching Meryl Streep have to talk about her sexual fantasies, orgasms, oral sex. It isn’t that Streep herself couldn’t go there — hell, she can go anywhere. It’s that the marvelous character she manifests can’t. It is sex that’s wrong, but it is also emotional intimacy – and what could be more awkward than that?
There is nothing romantic about physically caring for your lover as she withers in your arms. This is bedpans, bed sores, wetting the bed, eating baby food, the loss of speech — it is the part of life most of us fear yet here is Michael Haneke diving right into the deep end. By the end of it you can be sure that you finally and completely understand what is meant by the word love. This is love in every definition of the word. It is as powerful and life altering as you allow it to be.
The performances are probably going to ride circles around the rest of the performances given this year. But because Streep won last year (in a far lesser performance) and because they are “old” people, there is nothing sexy about them. Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant are not well-known enough outside Europe and art-house Americans to garner Oscar attention. Most Oscar watchers will shake their head no, never giving Oscar voters, SAG voters or Globe voters the benefit of the doubt — that they can recognize a great performance even when the actors aren’t speaking in the English language.
Streep has tapped into something real here — with no wig, makeup and accent to hide behind, she is at her most vulnerable. There is a tiny bit of a voice, and a manner to depict a woman who is cut off from her own body but who clearly needs more from life. Probably there isn’t anything Streep can’t do, but this kind of work is more emotionally difficult for her than the toss off role she phoned in from last year. Jones doesn’t get to wisecrack and smirk through this part. Maybe we’ve never really known what a versatile actor he really is — because who knew he could do this, to be this bare. He plays a man frightened by his own emotions because he too has cut them off after being married to an emotionally and sexually stunted woman for 30 years. They find their way out of quiet desperation. They are the stop before Amour. What’s coming next for them is what Amour is about.
Riva must play a vivacious woman who descends towards death. She must go from being able to speak, to not being able to speak and then finally, to tolerating her husband’s inability to let her go — the rage and humiliation that comes with dying. Trintigant plays the caregiver who is madly in love with his wife and unable to face that they won’t be spending forever doing what they’ve always done – waking up, going to the theater, taking walks, enjoying every minute of time together.
Where Amour is more assuredly a masterpiece, Hope Springs is more problematic as great cinema. For one thing, Frankel relies too much on music cues to fill in subtext we really don’t need; the actors are so thorough here, anyone with half a brain will not leave wanting more — they turn themselves inside out. Some of the comic bits don’t match the seriousness the actors bring to the material. Maybe if the performers were less willing to go so deep it would work as a quirky comedy about bringing a marriage together. Because the actors are so raw and exposed the comic bits feel out of place. In fact, as a play with just Jones and Streep? There is your masterpiece.
Haneke, though, walked away with the Cannes Film Fest with Amour. It is the kind of film that shuts up even the most braindead and apathetic bloggers who attend the fest looking for something that will shake them to their core. That’s because of all of the frightening things we’ve seen in film, there is nothing quite as terrifying as the moment we must confront death. It s a beautiful truth. It is an ugly one.
Will Oscar voters pay attention to them? Will they be forgotten? It’s hard to say. What is apparent, though, these four performances have set the bar impossibly high. Anyone who knows what defines great acting will not be able to turn away.
The film was better than I’ve expected, but that’s largely thanks to the amazing Meryl Streep and the equally vulnerable performance of Tommy Lee Jones. I thought was certain brave, if not pioneering (there were a few other movies dealing with intimacy of older people…there is one from Australia a long time ago, but I forgot its name).
When I thought it was going to take one more turn, making this a very non-Hollywood dramedy (…divorce…), we end up with a (I felt) tacked-on happy ending. One minute you are no longer attracted to your wife, but the other minute when you are threatened with divorce, you suddenly find her attractive again…in the dark! I’m not saying he should never be attracted to her again, but it only took him a few hours to make up his mind when a crisis that serious is between the couple for a long long time. I would rather the movie spends more time to deal with painful realization rather than this forced ending. Also, casting Steve Carrell in the therapist role is uninspiring and distracting. It pulls our focus away from the couple. However, Streep and Jones fully convey the intimacy they’ve once had, the hope they have for the future, and the crushing disappointments of the reality now.
I really can’t wait to see Amour though!!!
I hung on every word Sasha – once again, you make me want to go and see a movie…
I don’t always agree with your POV, Sasha, but this was beautifully written. Thank you.
Another quick thought comparing Streep in this film and TIL: In TIL her character was extraordinary while what’s so striking about her character in this film is how utterly ordinary she is. Yet somehow, Streep makes her seem special.
Streep has tapped into something real here — with no wig, makeup and accent to hide behind, she is at her most vulnerable.
I agree. And I’m glad that someone with the stature of Tommy Lee Jones was cast opposite her so they could challenge each other to do such intimate work. I liked this film because of its intelligent treatment of physical and emotional intimacy. Streep and Jones should be credited for much of this, but the script gives them something to work with. This film is, of course, a tough sell in today’s marketplace, which probably explains the misleading trailer. Regarding Streep’s work in TIL, however, I feel that her performance in it was excellent.
I’m looking forward to seeing Amour, which no doubt is a better film overall.
A movie about 60 year-old people talking about sex gets to be wide released in summer. It’s indeed a miracle.
Probably there isn’t anything Streep can’t do, but this kind of work is more emotionally difficult for her than the toss off role she phoned in from last year.
How do you know what’s difficult for her? Maybe she makes it all look so easy, while other actresses struggle with their mediocrity, that it seemed like a “toss off role” to you. Enough people thought it wasn’t that she walked away with Oscar. Maybe this will be number four since she’s done much more difficult work than last year.
I can’t comment on Hope Springs – haven’t seen it. It looks pleasant enough and by the sounds of it, has pretty decent performances.
I have seen Amour, which contains two of the better performances I have seen in quite awhile. The film itself is as good as the performances.
I cannot see under any circumstances that both lead actors won’t be nominated for an Oscar. I doubt I will see better performances this year. I would like to, but I doubt it. Same goes for the film.
Streep deserves the Oscar nominee for Hope Springs, the academy better not ignore her just because she won last year. It aint her fault shes hella good in everything shes in.
Looking forward to seeing Amour and was pleasantly surprised by how Hope Springs was far more dramatic than the trailer lead on. Saying this is sort of sacrilege for me, but Jones was the more memorable performance in this film. Would love to see both of them nominated, but I agree with C Lewis that if Streep isn’t, it’ll up her chances for August: Osage County, which I canNOT wait for.
I don’t mind if Meryl wins her fourth Oscar.
Poor LaQuifa. Your understanding of my comment is surpassed only by your understanding of the English language.
Don’t be ridiculous. I just thought a reply was appropriate; this is the last I’m gonna say on the matter.
I never thought I should hear one of my all-time heroes, Haneke, mentioned in the same breath as the man behind The Devil Wears Prada!
Paddy your are such a whore. I want to see you say those comments in Meryl’s face.
Maybe I’m the only one who liked TIL as a film more than anyone here and it’s okay.
Meryl had some advantages on her side…. well, mainly Harvey Weinstein and the Academy still stands in line to suck his….youknowwhat. Hard.
But in all honesty most people treated Hope Springs especially after the trailer like “It’s Complicated 2”, a nice maybe funny sex-comedy and it turned out to be more serious like I had the feeling from watching the trailer.
That’s good, no? Pleasent surprise and here Meryl seems not to be the acting showcase. Also welcome.
Though, for another nomination (at Oscars) it seems a too unbaity role. I hope I’m wrong, of course.
It’s opening in Germany in September and I can’t wait to see it. That’s all.
Agreed Paddy M., can we please separate the quality of the film (The Iron Lady) and the dislike of the character (Margaret Thatcher) from the actual acting. That performance was not phoned in, it was technically superb. I love me some Viola Davis, but Meryl Streep deserved her Oscar.
…this kind of work is more emotionally difficult for [Meryl Streep] than the toss off role she phoned in from last year.
I don’t like Phyllida Lloyd as a director, I don’t like The Iron Lady as a film and I don’t like Margaret Thatcher as a human being, but girl, you need to up your medication.
Anyone who knows what defines great acting will not be able to turn away.
The scene where she’s woken up by her son calling from South Africa is great acting for sure.
Lovely piece, Sasha! I can’t wait to see Amour, which I’m hoping will be released in my area before it’s all said and done. I loved Hope Springs as a film, b/c it really went there. It wasn’t afraid to let the camera linger in those uncomfortable moments and relish in Streep and Jones’ faces, which might be the biggest marvel the movie has. It is sad that Streep won last year for what I thought was a technically marvelous performance that was missing with Streep does best, humanize her characters (there were slight touches in the older Thatcher sequences). She’s on fire in Hope Springs–utterly connected to what it means to be truly lonely, but not alone. I can only think her not being nom’ed for this will help her win again next year for August Osage County.