MOVIE REVIEW: MIDWINTER BREAK

 

Longtime retired couple Stella and Gerry realize that their relationship has reached a crossroads while on holiday in Amsterdam. After so much time and so many memories, long-held promises and deeply concealed wounds threaten to come to light and force them to confront their future.

Director: Polly Findlay

Cast: Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds, Julie Lamberton, Ed Sayer

Release Date: February 20, 2026

Genre: 

Drama

Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving alcoholism, some strong language, bloody images and suggestive material.

Runtime: 1h 30m

Review:

Midwinter Break is a quiet, deconstruction of a marriage that’s tender but devesting at the same time carried by a pair of stalwart performances from Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds.  Polly Findlay’s directorial debut leans heavily on her background in the theater by staging scenes in very deliberate and intimate manner which gives her two central performers plenty of room to display their immense talent.  It’s a meditative approach that works well for the delicate character study at play as she makes great use of the gloomy, European setting.  This is definitely not the kind of film that’s in a rush to get anywhere fast as it puts the spotlight squarely on the performances.  Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds are more than up to the task as they provide so much depth and texture without saying a word.  They are both able to convey such a massive amount of emotional information with simple looks that you just have to appreciate their talent.  They bring a level of lived in authenticity to the character’s love but deep seeded resentment that’s built over decades after a tragic moment that led them on divergent emotional journeys.   Hinds gives his character a pragmatism that he uses to cope along with a fair amount of alcohol while Manville exudes a quiet desperation as she searches for something meaningful in her life.  Their diametrically opposed world views are firmly entrenched and while she struggles to find a new path there’s nary doubt that when it’s all said and done, they would never leave each other making Midwinter Break a tragic tale of a compromised love. 

A-