By Kayla DeKraker
For director Polly Findlay, portraying the complexity of human relationships took centerstage in her new movie, MIDWINTER BREAK, which released Feb. 20.
MIDWINTER BREAK follows Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds as a Northern Irish married couple, Stella and Gerry, in “a stirring meditation on faith, commitment and the enduring power of love,” as the longtime couple “takes a life-changing trip to Amsterdam,” a synopsis reads.
“You know, in some ways, it is quite a lot like a play, like it’s a lot of two-handers, like the scenes are mostly Lesley and Ciarán,” Findlay told Movieguide®. “It’s a film that we all knew right from the beginning was going to sort of really live and die on the quality of those performances. So, I guess I was really lucky in having a producer and also, really importantly, a crew that really understood every day that we were making it.”
Related: Polly Findlay | The Challenge She Didn’t Expect
Findlay worked hard to “balance portraying real human struggle while still allowing space for grace, healing or redemption.”
“From my point of view, it was just important to try and be authentic about those things and to allow the contradictions and the complexities in that relationship to be as they are in life,” she said.
“We all know anyone that’s married or actually, you know, even long-standing friendship. You can have those moments or in the morning and think ‘I can’t stand this. It has to stop, like I can’t. I can’t carry on in this any longer.’ And then by the time you get to the evening, you’re thinking, ‘I love you so much, and I’m so glad that I’m with you.’ And we all have those moments of contradiction in our relationships,” she explained.
Findlay emphasized that it is important to be honest about difficult emotions, which she hopes MIDWINTER BREAK conveys.
“I felt that it the more honest we were about that the more authentic the hope would feel, or the kind of brand of hope that they find at the end, the more authentic that would feel,” she said.
The movie is based on the international bestseller by Bernard MacLaverty of the same name, Filmthusiast said on Instagram.
Part of Movieguide®’s review of MIDWINTER BREAK reads, “A slow-moving but engrossing, well-acted character study of a long marriage. The scenes are understated, but the third act ratchets up the dramatic conflict and concludes with a touching, hopeful final scene. However, MIDWINTER BREAK doesn’t really resolve the married couple’s personal issues and differences.”
Movieguide® notes, “The wife’s longing to use her Catholic faith to ‘make a difference’ is left hanging, as is the husband’s atheism and personal self-loathing. MIDWINTER BREAK also has some foul language and an implied bedroom scene. So, MOVIEGUIDE® suggests extreme caution.”
MIDWINTER BREAK is in theaters now.
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