Poor communication is at the heart of this British drama, wherein elderly Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent) is reconnected to past events and people when he is left — and then denied access to — a deceased friend’s diary.  Tony’s efforts to persuade, cajole or force a former flame, Veronica (Charlotte Rampling), to produce it reveal their youthful love affair, and recall a devastating mistake he made when they parted, which still has repercussions so many years later.

Ritesh Batra’s film, based on a novel by Julian Barnes, is ostensibly about reviewing and reassessing how one’s life has been lived, and gradually Tony realizes that he could have, and should have, done things differently.  It’s not just the past that nags at him; his ex-wife Margaret (Harriet Walter) and grown, pregnant, about-to-give birth daughter Susie (Michelle Dockery) have their own grips on his time and attention.  But this echo from the past consumes him, and against all advice, Tony makes every effort to get to the bottom of it.

The problem, which continually distracted me, is that nobody in this tale seems to want to talk to each other.  Tony surmises things about Veronica which are usually proven to be false, but she won’t talk to him.  And every misstep he makes creates bad feelings for other people close to him.  For me at least, the movie became more about Tony stumbling around in the present than reconciling himself with the past, even though it is the past that is currently obsessing him.  And then the story wraps up with a sentence or two describing what really happened in the past, which only confused me; I’m still not exactly sure what occurred because there simply wasn’t enough exposition.

The acting is fine; Jim Broadbent is always convincing and interesting to watch, while everyone else did good work as well.  But I don’t care for the way in which the story meandered around and then wrapped up with so little fanfare.  It created more questions in my mind than answers, which is frustrating.  I cannot recommend it, and I dislike the title — although it is true that the film only provides the sense of its own ending.  ☆ ☆.  23 March 2017.