Lesley Manville’s “captivating” new drama movie has been released in the UK. Midwinter Break is based on a book by Bernard MacLaverty, and follows a longstanding couple who take a trip to Amsterdam.
However, as they appear to be drifting apart, the break stirs up memories of the past, with the film described as an “emotionally intricate exploration of universal relationship dynamics”.
Viewers wanting to catch the movie – which co-stars Belfast’s Ciarán Hinds – can now do so, as it has just been released in UK cinemas.
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Midwinter Break was called “simply captivating in its dissection of the long-term repercussions of deep-rooted trauma” by Yahoo in its review.
“In just 90 minutes, Hinds and Manville demonstrate a remarkable and heartbreaking chemistry that navigates the peaks and valleys of their characters’ love under a multilayered marital portrait embedded in history,” it added.
The Guardian further called it a “triumph” in a glowing five-star review, adding that it “creates space for Hinds and Manville to give substantial, intimate, complex performances of the kind that most movies (of whatever sort) do not allow their leads”, calling Manville’s turn “very moving”.
“If you’re drawn to the kind of melodrama that quietly unfurls in the pained faces of its actors, with the requisite subtext of Catholic guilt and whiskey as therapy, then this adaptation of Bernard MacLaverty’s 2017 novel will scratch your itch,” added The AV Club.
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Variety suggested that Midwinter Break “does nothing earth-shattering”, though “touchingly colors in how it might be possible for two people to know each other too well and also not well enough”.
The movie comes from theatre director Polly Findlay, and has been co-written by original author MacLaverty and Wanderlust’s Nick Payne. The Virtues’ Niamh Cusack, and Leila Laaraj co-star.
Midwinter Break is out now in UK cinemas.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Â Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ as a sub-editor.