As most weekends to Paris now begin, we find Meg and Nick, at the beginning of LE WEEKEND (M) hurtling through the Chunnel on the Eurostar train from London. Meg is reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog, perhaps to get into the Paris mood avant arrival.
Meg and Nick honeymooned in Paris thirty years ago, but as they say the honeymoon is over. Even the hotel they honeymooned in has lost its appeal and the trip totters on being a horror holiday.
Throwing fiscal caution to the wind, Meg commandeers a cab that takes them on a personal guided tour of the city and delivers them to a five star accommodation.
Over the next two days, they try to traverse the trigonometry of their relationship – their disappointing son who threatens their empty nester status, a long ago fling of Nick’s that Meg cannot forget, the careers that seem to have calcified.
If revisiting their youth was supposed to revitalise their relationship, the rocky shores of reality – of redundancy, unrealised dreams and receding opportunity – run mighty interference. Age has wearied them and custom somewhat staled their infinite variety, yet we are given glimpses of what was, what attracted each to the other, glimmers of joi de vivre.
A chance meeting with an old collegiate of Nick’s, an American named Morgan who now resides in Paris with his new, young wife, illustrates and contrasts the arbitrariness of destiny.
Morgan is materially successful, gregarious, and a self realising narcissist. He has a coterie of chic colleagues, an entourage of admirers, and loads of chutzpah charm.
At dinner at Morgan’s magnificent apartment, Nick has an impromptu but decisive deep and meaningful with Morgan’s son from a previous marriage and Meg is propositioned by a dinner guest. Meg doesn’t want anyone else, just herself, but these two events are catalyst for a compelling climax.
Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent are magnificent as Meg and Nick, beautifully nuanced performances that bring an honest and human dimension to the drama, transmogrifying dour into humour.
As the charismatic Morgan, Jeff Goldblum is the goods. Watch him try and steal the movie but against such steely performances he becomes a glorious accomplice in heisting and hoisting the audience applause.
Le Weekend marks the third feature collaboration between Director Roger Michell and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, the idea for the project starting back when they were finishing 2006’s Oscar-nominated Venus. It’s another exultant collaboration, algebraic in its resonant ‘reunion of broken parts’.
French cinematographer Nathalie Durand and a cool jazzy score by Jeremy Sams serve the perfect accompaniment to this wonderful film. See LE WEEKEND this weekend and make it a memorable weekend.