2. Mike Leigh and Lesley Manville
Despite working with him on All or Nothing, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake, it’s Lesley Manville’s fifth Mike Leigh film trip where this working relationship became ripe. The third mention for Another Year Repeat Offenders is with the role of Mary. She might overtly come across has neurotic but there is a subtext in Manville’s work here which ultimately allows the viewer to pity the character in the final season of the film when all possible compassion for the character, at least from her immediate friends is paper-thin. It’s another strong female heroine designed by Leigh, but this one doesn’t illicit the kind of passion that will have propelled her in awards season, but it nonetheless made a mark back at Cannes and has remained throughout the year.
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