Hope Gap 2019

     This film is based on William Nicholson’s own life experiences and also expanding on his late 1980’s stage play titled The Retreat from Moscow.  The marriage of his own parents broke down after 33 years together.  The intimate, intense and loving story of Hope Gap charts the life of Grace.  She is extremely shocked to learn her husband is leaving her for another woman after 29 years of marriage.  There is also an emotional fallout from the breakup on their only grown son.  Unraveled and feeling displaced in her small British seaside town, Grace ultimately regains her footing and discovers a new and powerful voice.

     It is the couple’s 29th wedding anniversary and Edward has decided it’s finally time to tell Grace he’s leaving her.  He has invited their son, Jamie to see them for the weekend.  He can help serve as a buffer for Edward and support system for Grace.  The steadily tense conversation itself is the film’s highlight with Edward delivering the news at the kitchen table along with tea and toast.  In her stunned disbelief, all Grace can do is repeat his words back to him.  Edward explains that he’s met someone else and has been in love with her for the past year.  All this information is a huge surprise for both Grace and Jamie!!  

    This is a very moving film about a long term marriage falling apart.  Married people and other people intending to marry may find insight from this film.  I think the value of the marriage and the relationship of the couple has lost its importance.  One of the partners realized this, believed this and the other did not.  The scenery of this area is very beautiful and it is also one of the characters. 

100 min, Drama directed and written by William Nicholson with Annette Bening, Bill Nighy, Josh O’Connor, Alysha Hart, Ryan McKen, Joe Citro, Sally Rogers, Nicolas Burns, Steven Pacey, Derren LItten, Rose Keegan, Finn Bennett, Nicholas Blane.

Note:  Imdb 6.7* out of 10* with 2443 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 63% with 84 critics 68% with 19 audience scores, Metacritc 58 out of 100 with 23 critic reviews 6 out of 10 with 5 user scores, Roger Ebert 2* Christy Lermire, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Leslie Felperin, RollingStone 3* out of 5* Peter Travers, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5* with 4 fans, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 3254 reviews. 

Special Note:  Filmed in part on location in Seaford East Sussex.  Bill Nighy & Josh O’Connor also collaborated on Emma 2020.  Nicholson has said that he likes to view the story as a mid-point between the films Brief Encounter and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Mistakes:  Grace’s British accent comes and goes??  There is a jar of Marmite (a savory spread popular in the UK) on a shelf in the kitchen.  It alternates between two orientations, it is side-on when Bill Nighy is in close-up but when Annette Bening is also in view the back of the jar is turned to the camera.