Midwinter Break

Rated PG-13 • Theaters

Midwinter Break adapts Bernard MacLaverty’s 2017 novel of the same name, with Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds playing Stella and Gerry, an Irish married couple who have been living in England for most of their lives and now find themselves muddling through their retirement years. The story starts when Stella surprises her husband with a post-Christmas trip to Amsterdam.

The film’s title has a double meaning. The trip itself is a midwinter break from the monotony of their day-to-day existence, but on the trip this couple in the midwinter of their lives find they can’t ignore the rift that’s grown in their marriage.

Stella is a devout Catholic who is searching for something more in life, and as she ages, she feels like she hasn’t done enough for God. Gerry is dismissive of his wife’s religion, and his excessive alcohol consumption is alienating Stella. A change of scenery and a little spontaneity can’t paper over the gulf that’s grown between them. Both spouses are still coping with the trauma they experienced as they fled Northern Ireland during the Troubles decades earlier. In Amsterdam, they’ll be forced to confront those haunting memories.

Manville and Hinds give formidable performances which elicit sympathy for both characters. The quiet script wrestles with the demands of faith, the realities of aging, and the destructive capacity of pain. It also depicts the effort that’s required for sustaining long-term marital love. We’re inundated with movies about the beginnings of love, but what about love at the end of life? What does love look like after the “happily ever after”?

Midwinter Break won’t appeal to everyone. The movie is rated PG-13 for some strong language and suggestive material. It’s also one of those slow movies that gives you time to settle into the characters’ pain. And its predictable resolution of the faith dilemma left this viewer a little unsatisfied.