Woman takes dog for walk. Woman finds out husband of 45 years might have loved old dead girlfriend more than he told her when they met. Why didn’t he tell her at the time? Husband says ‘it’s not the kind of thing you tell your beautiful new girlfriend’. A satisfactory answer, I would have thought, but woman is unhappy and takes dog for walk. Woman looks at husband’s old photos, finds out girlfriend was pregnant when she died. Woman gets even more cross, and takes dog for another walk. Husband gives her beautiful necklace for their anniversary, makes her breakfast in bed and gives loving tender speech at the anniversary party. They dance. Woman is still inexplicably cross.

Somewhere between mindless action movies and intimate personal dramas where nothing much happens there is a happy medium. This film isn’t it. I dozed off once, but then I usually do if I’ve had a busy day, but more importantly MY FRIEND WHO LOVES INTIMATE PERSONAL DRAMAS WHERE NOTHING MUCH HAPPENS also dozed off.

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay are veteran English actors whose mastery of their craft is flawless, and Tom Courtenay giving his slightly nervous daggy hubby anniversary speech at the end is mesmerisingly good, but I had hoped for (SPOILER ALERT!) a twist of some kind – a small crime or act of betrayal or even just a teensy hint of a scandalous secret to liven things up – but alas I was disappointed. Or did I miss something?

This review was first published to Facebook on 21.2.16