The film was selected to be screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and also screened at the 2015 Telluride Festival.[8] It was released in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2015, and was released in the United States by Sundance Selects on 23 December 2015.[9]
Plot
Five years after retirees Kate and Geoff Mercer had to cancel their 40th wedding anniversary because of Geoff's heart bypass surgery, the comfortably-off, childless Norfolk couple are preparing to celebrate their 45th anniversary with dozens of friends at the Assembly House in Norwich. Their morning is somewhat disturbed when Geoff opens a letter telling him that the body of Katya, his German lover in the early 1960s before meeting Kate, has become visible in a melting glacier where she fell into a crevasse on their hike in Switzerland over five decades ago.
Kate has been told about Katya previously by Geoff and seems initially unconcerned by his controlled disquiet. Geoff tells Kate that he and Katya had pretended to be married in order to be able to share a room in the more puritanical early 1960s. Because of this, the Swiss authorities consider him to be Katya's next of kin.
As the days pass and preparations for the party continue, Geoff continues to be moody and starts smoking again. One night, Geoff climbs into the attic to look at his memorabilia of Katya and only reluctantly shows a picture of her to an angrily insistent Kate. Kate notices that Katya looks like her when she was young, with similar dark hair.
While Geoff is out at a reunion luncheon at his former workplace, Kate climbs the ladder to the attic. She finds Geoff's scrapbook filled with memorabilia from his time with Katya, including pressed violets from their last hike. She finds a carousel slide projector, loaded with images of Switzerland and Katya, next to a makeshift screen to view them. Kate is shocked to see slides showing that Katya was pregnant at the time of her death.
Kate also takes up smoking again and, upon learning of his visit to the local travel agency to inquire about trips to Switzerland, confronts Geoff about his recent behavior. Though she does not reveal what she saw in the attic, she does say that she now feels as though many of their decisions as a couple were, without her awareness, influenced by Geoff's experiences with Katya. Geoff promises their marriage will "start again", which he marks the next morning by serving Kate tea in bed and making her breakfast. They attend their anniversary party in the historic Grand Hall, and Geoff delivers a tearful speech in which he professes his love for Kate.
The first dance is announced, accompanied by the same first song from Kate and Geoff's wedding, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by The Platters. While they slow dance, Geoff becomes silly and playful, but Kate becomes increasingly awkward and rigid. As the song ends and Geoff raises their hands together in the air to cheers from the guests, Kate yanks her arm down. Geoff, apparently oblivious, dances away, leaving Kate standing alone amid the mass of people on the dance floor.
Filming took place over 6 weeks, concluding in May 2014.[10][11]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 212 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 8.6/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "45 Years offers richly thought-provoking rewards for fans of adult cinema – and a mesmerizing acting showcase for leads Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 94 out of 100 based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]
In a review in The Observer, Mark Kermode described the film as a "subtle examination of the persistence of the past and the fragile (in)stability of the present", arguing that the lead performances "turn an apparently everyday story of a marriage in quiet crisis into something rather extraordinary." He concluded by observing that, "Like the final shot of The Long Good Friday, which lingers upon Bob Hoskins's face as he revisits the events that brought him to this sorry pass, 45 Years shows us the past materialising in the expressions of those trapped in the present, staring into an uncertain future."[14]
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