It was a delight to read a dark story, but at the forefront of it, you’ve got this couple who actually have a sense of humour. And this thing happens to them that is so prevalent in the world. It’s a film about this fantastic couple who are middle-aged they still like each other and they still find each other attractive. I really like Lisa and Glenn, the directors. Also, Liam was going to do it, and he’s a great actor. Lesley Manville: First of all, it was very well written, and for me, it starts and ends with that. Seventh Row (7R): What excited you about playing Joan in Ordinary Love ? theatre, and we also touched on her work with Mike Leigh. We delved into the challenges of playing Joan, the joys of acting in film vs.

I spoke to Manville about the film last September, at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Manville is not afraid to show her character being mean, to show how extreme pain and illness are mentally corrosive. Later, after a particularly horrible round of chemo, it’s heartbreaking to see her snap at and scream at her husband who’s just trying to help. After taking her physical health for granted for so long, she is now afraid of her body and not sure what to do with it. After she finds the lump, for example, Joan becomes visibly more protective of her body, with Manville holding onto herself and adopting a closed-off posture. But the real feat of her performance is how she provides subtle cues to Joan’s mental state: her fear and her growing discomfort in her own body. It’s upsetting to witness the way that Manville’s body crumples in on itself, and to hear her moans of pain. They’re easy in each other’s company: we then observe them as they watch TV, talking but never looking at each other, because they don’t need to.Īs Joan gets sicker, Manville embodies her gruelling physical and emotional transformation. It’s evident that this is some kind of tradition so ingrained in their everyday that they don’t even think about it not a word passes between the two. The opening shot sees them holding hands as they walk down the pavement and up to a small tree by the roadside, which they circle around before returning back the way they came. We’re given time at the start of the film to settle into the minutiae of Joan’s and Tom’s life together. The film is a detailed look at how a very ordinary married couple (Joan, played by Manville, and Tom, played by Liam Neeson) cope with a life-threatening disruption to their amiable married life: Joan finds a lump on her breast, and a series of tests reveal it to be cancerous. It’s easy to take a great new performance from film and theatre veteran Lesley Manville for granted, but Ordinary Love’s cancer patient Joan is one of her most physically challenging roles to date. Interview: Lesley Manville on Ordinary Love. Lesley Manville delves into the challenges of portraying a cancer patient’s physical development, and discusses her work with Mike Leigh.

Ordinary love and good will