Mike Leigh’s latest movie Another Year is a pure “slice of life” exercise. It consists of four segments labeled “Spring,” “Summer,” “Autumn” and “Winter” featuring incidents from a year in the lives of the two main characters.

These are Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), an elderly couple who in spite of their unfortunate names are smart, decent, sensible and well-adjusted. They also have a son (Oliver Maltman) who is also a decent well-adjusted sort. This could make a very dull movie, but fortunately for us they have relatives and friends who are not at all well-adjusted, including Gerri’s boozy and lonely friend Mary (Lesley Manville) and Tom’s lonely and boozy friend Ken (Peter Wight.)

This sort of thing is very much a matter of taste, but it does feature some fine acting and witty dialog.