What appears to be a typical weepy has those qualities which pluck at the fabric of life in unexpected, wrenching fashion set initially in Northern Ireland.
Ordinary Love is a domestic drama from Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn that works nicely from the relational angst of a longtime married couple put to the test with a cancer diagnosis.
Lesley Manville’s Joan is afflicted after a self-exam is finally confirmed, and the pleasurable eponymous emotion with soul-mate Tom (Liam Neeson, a native of the aforementioned locale) becomes discordant. Especially, when the unfortunate earlier passing of daughter Debbie comes to the fore that wakens dormant resentments.
These (sexagenarian) retirees have the kind of conversations of mundane things that sound true. Fit-bits come up not just because they are avid power walkers, as well as what might be in their soup of the day or other veggies.
Neeson gets a break from the type of film that has bolstered his box-office over the last decade or so (no kidnappings or bomb threats) as a placid existence of joking and ignoring at times morphs into a life-altering reality.
It’s hard not to believe that Joan and Tom aren’t the kind of real folks that are reminiscent of neighbors or loved ones. And, from Owen McCafferty’s writing of the conventional dialogue Neeson and Manville, notably, invest much into their roles, especially as the medical metropolis enters the picture.
This Love may be ordinary as tragedy and comedy intersect if one considers intimacy and a haircut part of the honesty which doesn’t turns bathetic. Support is offered by the likes of David Wilmot as Peter who happens to have terminal cancer, not to mention being Debbie’s former teacher.
Even if his narrative strand might appear a tad forecastable, another example in the genre has a soft, lovely quality that has the ingredients to stir the heart, in the ilk of Michael Haneke’s poignant Amour.