Directed by Oscar nominee Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi), Anniversary delves into a portrait of a family divided by a new member, as the new girlfriend named Liz begins dating Ellen and Paul’s son Josh. Liz is a former student of Ellen’s political science classes. She recalls that Liz was kicked out of the school for her radical views, ones that seem to stem deep from her psyche. The result is an awkward family party, followed by more awkward and tense gatherings as Liz’s ideas gain popularity and threaten to forever divide Ellen’s family apart.
Anniversary is very much an ensemble piece, as it divides screen time heavily between these prominent TV stars making some of their strongest work. The family consists of three daughters and one son, each of whom have a partner at one point or another. The film is able to follow and create strong emotional arches for most of them by establishing key details about the characters which are changed as time passes. The characters all make dramatic decisions at one point or another and the film uses the benefits of mostly taking place in one house rather than highlighting its limitations.
One of the strengths of Komasa’s story is its use of the mysterious motives of the characters. The members of this family never seem to be who they are and constantly change. Each character goes through several perspective shifts that keeps its secrets close to their vest. Even so, it does result in lots of awkward and frustrating family conversations as we see the family try to unite, even as their actions or quick remarks seem to divide them.
Where the film does feel a bit limited is in its emotional investment and social commentary. Anniversary has trouble balancing the two as it uses this mosaic of (almost double digit) characters to draw a wide array of perspectives and emotions to the film’s events yet never spends enough time with them to make the real emotional moments affect the viewer. Its choice to delve into the melodrama of its political and familial conflict then barely makes an impact, despite how dramatic the events on screen may be. The film feels like it needs to pick a perspective to stick to for a longer amount of time. It feels like an epic that did not have the scenes to truly flesh out its ideas. The ideas we are then left with feel quite surface level. What starts as the typical discussion on where the limits of free speech should be ends up turning into a picture of a family torn apart by political uprising. Neither part feel like they give a ton of nuance or detail to the discussions making the social commentary a bit undercooked.
Anniversary‘s escalation into grand melodrama does leave us wondering about Liz’s ideas. Is trying to resist and censor radical ideas the only way to actually save a vulnerable country from embracing radicalism or will the truth only come out if these ideas are respected and debated with care and nuance? The film draws interesting parallels between family and political division, seeing as family can often be divided by these things. At what point do you censor your family?
The question of when debate ends and harm begins is clearly in the spotlight, showing us how emotional distance can create political distance that isn’t desired by either party. In this film’s warning against authoritarian and autocracy perspectives, we also get the feeling that those who embrace it and are ultimately betrayed by it turn to these views because of a lack of agency or belonging in their own life. Those who do not feel connected to their family divulge from them both as family and as members of society. They begin to do and say things the rest of their family cannot know about or do not want to tolerate. The result is a bomb under the table that, at each new gathering of this family across time, threatens to divide them, even as the parents, most notably Paul, try to find a way to keep their family together. This combined with clever set ups, scenarios that provoke critical thinking and strong acting create a film worth talking about even if some parts of the film do not live up to the importance it seems to represent.
Anniversary is available in theatres now.
