Ritsh Batra (The Lunchbox) adapts Julian Barnes’ Booker Prize-winning novel with Jim Broadbent impressive as a man who grapples with his past.
Tony (Broadbent) runs a small camera shop in London. Living a quiet life, he is surprised one day when he is contacted by a solicitor who informs him the mother of an old girlfriend of his has left him a small amount of money and a diary. The latter is still with his ex and he finds a way to contact Veronica (Charlotte Rampling). But in doing so, Tony opens wounds from the past that, for some people, have never quite healed. Shifting seamlessly between past and present, Batra’s film, adapted from Barnes’ novel by acclaimed playwright Nick Payne, is an unsettling examination of jealousy, betrayal and the pain caused by petty callousness. Billy Howle and Freya Mavor are impressive as the young Tony and Veronica, while Rampling is on searing form and Broadbent’s skill as an actor gradually peels away the layers of Tony’s psyche until his character is forced to face up to his sins.
