Hope Gap ( Wer wir sind und wer wir waren ) **** UK 2019 Opening December 10 , 2020
Directed by : William Nicholson Writing credits : William Nicholson Principal actors : Annette Bening , Bill Nighy , Sally Rogers , Josh O ’ Connor
Hope Gap is a fitting title for the well-worn story of a couple breaking up after three decades of marriage . Grace ( Annette Bening ) is unaware that her husband Edward ( Bill Nighy ) is plotting to leave her for another woman . She needles him , cajoles him in a merciless manner trying to awaken him from his passive indifference . She only wants to get some reaction from him . Grace has obviously always been the driving force in their marriage . She ’ s extroverted , intelligent , charming , and always has lines of poetry to quote for any occasion . Edward , a meek , ineffective man , is a teacher who drones on about Napoleon ’ s retreat from Russia to his captive students . Yet his mind is elsewhere ; he has fallen in love with the mother of one of his students , Angela ( Sally Rogers ). He plucks up all his courage and leaves their very comfortable home in picturesque Seaford where he and Grace had had a seemingly perfect life .
Grace flounders . She sees Edward as a mirage sitting at his familiar desk . She patiently sits on the stairs of their home waiting for his return . She buys a new puppy , calls him Edward , and commands him to “ sit ” and “ stay .” Months after Edward has left , she slyly slips into Edward and Angela ’ s very modest home to confront Edward . Angela proves she now has filled the gap and has quite effectively taken over Grace ’ s domineering role . She signals to Edward to be silent and recites proudly ( as though well-rehearsed ), “ I think there used to be three unhappy people , and now there ’ s just one .” And Grace is desperately unhappy .
But , if truth be told , there are two unhappy people . Jamie ( Josh O ’ Connor ), their beloved adult son , gets caught in the middle of the breakup . He has learned to hide his vulnerability beneath charming cheerfulness . The film flashes back as he recounts his happiest childhood memory when he would swing between his two parents walking the scenic route near Seaford to Hope Gap . He now has to buttress up his mother and listen to his guilt-ridden father trying to explain it all .
Cinematographer Anna Valdez-Hanks captures both the subtle hues of the English seaside and the artistry of every gesture , word , or silence of the characters . Hope Gap ’ s cast is brilliant , though some British critics thought Bening ’ s English accent rather odd . William Nicholson inexplicably pretty much portrays the betrayed woman ’ s perspective rather than the betrayer ’ s . It ’ s almost impossible to get past Edward ’ s enigmatic hollowness to empathize with him . At times Nicholson alternated to the son Jamie ’ s point of view , but never let the pain get too close to him . Maybe that was intentional . 100 minutes . ( Pat Frickey )
Second Opinion of Hope Gap ( Wer wir sind und wer wir waren ) *** 1 / 2
Introducing the eponymous cove where his parents took him as a child , Jamie ( Josh O ’ Connor ) makes an astute observation that resonates as the family ’ s crisis unfolds . The rift between Grace ( Annette Bening ) and Edward ( Bill Nighy ) is acutely obvious within minutes of meeting them . Grace is vivacious , loquacious , and forthright ; Edward is reflective , staid , and disengaged . By the time grown-up Jamie , their only child , arrives on Saturday , the prevailing uneasiness is palpable . Sunday morning , Grace leaves for a while , which gives Ed the opportunity to make Jamie his ( reluctant ) confidant and accomplice . Returning , Grace ’ s relief that Ed is communicating turns to disbelief as the gist sinks in ; after learning about Angela ( Sally Rogers ), she pugnaciously takes a stance . During the subsequent tempestuous weeks , Jamie ’ s allies , Jess ( Aiysha Hart ) and Dev ( Ryan McKen ), listen , offer encouragement , and pose tough questions to him . In the end , being Ed ’ s go-between and Grace ’ s buoy forces Jamie to find his voice on several topics that surprisingly results in expanding a number of individual horizons .
Theater veterans Bening and Nighy ’ s conveyance of the profound minutia of a 29-year marriage ’ s binding entanglement ’ s disintegration is awesome to observe , just as O ’ Connor convincingly portrays their bemused , angry son while his life ’ s foundations unravel . Writer-director William Nicholson ’ s somewhat biographical screenplay ’ s humor , resentment , resolve , goodwill , and hope demonstrates a mature equilibrium . Anna Valdez-Hanks ’ s cinematography , Alex Heffes ’ s music , and Pia Di Ciaula ’ s editing largely magnify the film ’ s multifarious intertwining themes .
Hope Gap is tough yet straightforward ; most people will relate to its point of view at some level . Angela makes a shrewd comment near the end : “ There were three unhappy people and now ( there is ) only one .” Study each character ’ s face while she says this ; how an audience member interprets that will depend on which prism she or he looks through . ( Marinell Haegelin )
42 In Hamburg