By Joanne Sargent
Contributor
A film about a longtime married couple facing the wife’s breast cancer diagnosis might not seem an enticing formula for a night out at the movies.
Although difficult at times, however, Ordinary Love is more impactful than maudlin and portrays love and loss in a real and powerful way. To anyone who’s been through the life-shattering process, it may be all too familiar.
The couple is 60-something Joan and Tom who, having survived a previous loss, live a quiet, somewhat isolated, middle-class life in Northern Ireland. Early in the movie, Joan discovers a lump in one of her breasts and we follow the couple through her 12 months of medical tests, surgeries, chemotherapy, side-effects and the aftermath. But as much as the film focuses on the clinical procedures, even more of it is directed at relationships- – especially Tom and Joan’s, but also Joan’s friendship with a fellow cancer patient.
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The course of Joan’s treatment shines a light on the couple’s enduring devotion, as they must find the humour and grace to survive a year of adversity. But, as uncertainty hovers over everything, their conversations become heavy with their reciprocal fears and insecurities, and we see the toll of these stresses in an ugly argument that flares late in the film.
The admirable thing about Ordinary Love is its accuracy in capturing the small everyday highs and lows that define a marriage. The movie is directed by a married couple who seem intimately attuned to the nuances of a long-term relationship, and extraordinary acting by Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville makes for a heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting love story.
Ordinary Love plays at the Salmar Classic Cinema at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 7.
