Alternate Best Actor 2015: Tom Courtenay in 45 Years

Tom Courtenay did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning the Silver Bear, for portraying Geoff Mercer in 45 Years. 

45 Years focuses on the upheaval, due to an unlikely discovery, that besets a long married couple just before their 45th wedding anniversary. 45 Years is a film actually where I believe its virtues illustrates its flaws. This as the film too often will shy away from the central relationship to focus upon repetitive scenes of supposed contemplation of our female lead, who despite the primary character is oddly simplistic at times. It is an often frustration with me with certain independent cinema where silence is not golden, silence is earned, and should not be overused. 45 Years is an example where quite frankly it often feels like filler. 

 

Although these flaws exist, they hardly weigh down Tom Courtenay, as he pretty much denotes when it is the film is working because it means we will be watching the couple share the screen. Courtenay's character though is intentionally the more distant of the two though it is his Geoff with the most immediate revelation, we witness the film through the perspective of his wife Kate (Charlotte Rampling), essentially trying to understand his reaction to the discovery. Courtenay therefore actually is presented with a difficult challenge in conveying Geoff's reaction to the discovery, while also not exactly being the focus of the film. Thankfully this is Tom Courtenay we are speaking of, an actor, despite his periods of absences from film, never seemed to lose any of his ability to work his magic on the screen. Courtenay honestly being perhaps the least talked about, but in my view the most talented of the British crop of the 60's, and it is a bit of a gift to see him in a substantial role, even if restricted in a certain sense. Courtenay though always has been an actor who actively pulls you into his performances, this as he isn't someone with a typical leading man style presence, rather Courtenay makes his characters so vibrant and real, he pulls you in nonetheless. 

That quality of Courtenay's is ideal for Geoff who the film treats sometimes almost as a pseudo mcguffin for Kate to reflect about. Courtenay though does so much with this from the outset. This as we first meet them as Kate is prepping for their 45th wedding anniversary with a degree of calm eagerness, while Courtenay portrays a man whose head is miles away. His eyes themselves speak towards contemplation not of the present but of the past this as he speaks of his Katya, his old girlfriend who died in an hiking accident that left her frozen in the ice. The new discovery being that her body has been found, preserved, within the ice. Courtenay's speaks of this news with a very quiet anxiety though mixed with certain nostalgia, particularly every time he says "My Katya" Courtenay emphasizes a kind of tenderness that is specific only to a love of his. Courtenay's eyes though portray a man focused on this idea with a fixation upon. This even in his little asides to his actual wife that are more doddering of just the old married couple, however when it comes to Katya, like insisting he go retrieve the body himself, there is this way Courtenay buries this kind of urgency in his delivery. This as he speaks with a technical duplicity of the man trying to act as though the news isn't overly meaningful, while it is clearly everything to him. 

Upon re-watching the film, there is a greatness within Courtenay's work in that he actually manages to be distant seemingly towards Rampling, while actually his performance more so subtly creates the sense of Geoff dealing with the relationship still. This as Geoff speaks more towards the incident, revealing that he and Katya claimed to be married to get around (with the possibility that they really were married), Courtenay again speaks as this news should be nothing. His body language speaks towards a greater concern, particularly as he reveals they had a wedding ring even, and a great touch is Courtenay rubbing the area where he likely wore it. Recounting the whole story, or seemingly the whole story, Courtenay balances his delivery again. This between accentuating the little asides as though he is sharing something as a concerned husband trying to connect with his wife, while Courtenay though still runs through the story in an interesting way. This as Courtenay suggests within his own work that Geoff himself is unsure how he wholly feels about what had happened. There is the point that it was not pleasant, but what exactly he lost within it is more so even a mystery within his own work due to what it is where his life went. Courtenay avoids being vague, as I think was very possible in the part, by finding the right nuance within Geoff's own reflection. 

I have a feeling the film actually wanted Geoff to be more of a mystery given the limitations of his dialogue, again to more so leave us within Kate's perspective of wondering about Geoff, a mean a good chunk of Rampling's screentime is devoted to pensive looks at Courtenay. This is even to the point that often times there are scenes where Courtenay is off to the side, or the other side of a rarely given reaction shot. Courtenay even when literally absent from the frame though stays present. This as he successfully does share the tender moments with Rampling that suggest their 45 year long marriage, even while that weight upon the man remains a constant. A notably great actor given that Courtenay can convey the moments of connection, and distance, even when it is just his voice, or mostly the back of his head. Courtenay though never wastes an ounce of himself really. This keeping the conflict alive within even in a dinner scene where it is mostly not Courtenay in frame. His positioning of self, and the way he hangs his head, tightens his shoulders still accentuates the man's uneasy state. Courtenay manages to convert this though of more a crisis of his age, this again in a scene where he's almost blurred in car ride as he speaks to a former commie friend now a money obsessed banker. Courtenay again is compelling in his frustrations aren't just of some reaction to a hypocrite, as there is the intensity of man painfully analyzing where it is that the years have taken him. 

Watching the film again I could only be impressed by the complexity in Courtenay's work despite again the writing leaving the potential for an entirely vague presence within the film. Courtenay's work though refuses to be a device and crafts instead his own man, and really his own scenario throughout the film. This as it isn't a man who suddenly is in love with his old love, rather Courtenay expresses the difficult state of a man contemplating his age, which is represented by the woman he lost so long ago, yet retains what she looked like at one time. This as when Courtenay blares "It's not about Katya" about him wanting to retrieve her body, it is true in Courtenay's work. This as the anger is against his wife who he suddenly doesn't care about, it is rather the frustration of where the time has gone. Now take this just as my theory, however I think this is in a way proven by the ending of the film, their actually anniversary dinner, which I've heard some as some point for interpretation. Courtenay's deft performance though I think properly denies this, as he expresses Geoff in the moment of loving life and company at the party. Courtenay does not perform this as put on, this as he plays every moment with a free expression of joy and without the weight of that earlier contemplation. His final speech is brilliantly performed by Courtenay is that he isn't creating a mystery, but rather complexity. This as his speech combines a sense of the man still living through his aging basically, but also genuine expressing his love for his wife. Courtenay shows that there is a lot going on his mind, but the moment of the breakdown is wholly honest in a man appreciating what he does have. The intention of the film by Andrew Haigh appears to be to make it this kind of a question, while Courtenay's performance seems to reject any such nonsense instead focusing on, what should've been the whole film, that being these two people in their twilight years. Courtenay gives a great performance, not as a gimmicky enigma, but a powerful portrait of a man bluntly coming to terms with the passing of time after it is so vividly forced upon him.