This film questions our personal meaning of life by comparing our remembered past with the stories we shape from it. We enjoy a wonderful snapshot of contemporary London contrasted against memories of school and university life in the 60's. We are challenged to test the veracity of our remembered life story, with others' memories and external objects of verification. Does time tinge our memories? Do we ever fully understand the consequences of our earlier actions.
The
Sense of an Ending is based on the 2011 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Julian Barnes. It contrasts how we live, with how we live to regret. The excellent British cast is led by Jim Broadbent (Tony Webster) and includes Charlotte Rampling (first love Veronica) and Harriet Walter (ex-wife Margaret).
Tony and his friends first meet the new boy Adrian at their Etonian type school. In a history lesson Adrian responds with the films' guiding message “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation". Believing they would be friends for life, the boys navigate parties and girls and it is not long until we realise that Tony loses his first girlfriend Veronica, to Adrian.
Tony’s current life alters when he learns that he has inherited Adrian's diary, as part of the inheritance of Veronica's mother! We follow him around London in search of the diary and he surprises his ex-wife Margaret with stories she has never heard. The only part of the diary he receives from Veronica is a spiteful letter he once wrote and Tony needs to unravel various incidents from long ago. Finally, as he becomes a grandfather, he realises the importance of valuing what he has, in his ex wife, daughter and grandson.
