“Midwinter Break” (2026) adapts Bernard MacLaverty’s 2017 novel. Irish married couple, Stella (Lesley Manville) and Gerry (Ciarán Hinds), live in Glasgow, Scotland. Stella surprises Gerry with a Christmas gift, a trip to Amsterdam. During the trip, Stella alternates from having the best time with her husband to feeling troubled over not fulfilling a secret promise that she made when they lived in Ireland. How will this promise affect their marriage? Horror movies are relaxing, and this drama is my version of a horror movie.
Stella is Catholic, and the establishing shots make her seem like a single woman who adopted a grown man. She tries to connect but Gerry is absorbed in solving his crossword at the table, reading his book in his armchair and listening to music without a bit of concern when she goes out at night alone to go to church for Christmas service. Despite Gerry’s behavior, she takes care of him without a negative word even when she knows of his own secret activities. Does she want a vacation or a divorce? Her faith bars her from even considering the latter. The vacation serves a double purpose.
Gerry actually engages with her in another country. They cling to each other as they find their way through unfamiliar territory. They have activities to engage in and things to talk about. Gerry is having a great time, and he is only minimally furtive in another country. Director Polly Findlay does a good job of creating the logistical minutiae of travel logistics so the audience feels as if we are on the trip with them: looking up at monitors for the gate, walking through the airport, settling into the seat, looking for the correct way to navigate the hotel hallway, finding the room, swiping the card, etc. If “Midwinter Break” appeals to moviegoers, it will be the vicarious thrill of visiting museums, historical sites and various establishments for the relatively cheaper cost of a movie ticket.
While in Amsterdam, they serendipitously encounter a fellow Irish person, Kathy (Niamh Cusack), who lives there, and frequent an Irish pub. They clearly miss Ireland, but it never occurs to them that they could visit their homeland instead of a foreign location. If you are familiar with the history and see the trailers, you can probably guess their reason. If you cannot, each couple will unburden themselves of the traumatic event that set them on their present path at the most unlikely time and not to each other. Flashbacks also give a sense of what happened. Even though Stella is a Catholic, the most interesting aspect of her relationship with the church is that she never seeks out a priest. Gerry tells his secret to Aidan (Lewis Harris), a bartender, transforming the bar into his secular church, and communion wine does not come with refills.
“Midwinter Break” does one thing really well. It captures how two different people can experience similar or same conditions, but like a Rorschach test, they will come away with different perspectives. In a scene at a museum, they look at a painting, and Gerry only sees matrimonial love, but she sees an expectant mother protecting her unborn baby. It is an obvious parallel to their shared history, but also a valuable lesson when watching the movie. Different people will derive different conclusions from the ambiguous ending. If you hate ambiguous endings, then you should probably stay away.
To be fair, without the trauma, their marriage probably would still be in trouble. They have some dealbreaker issues that should have been vetted before they even got together. As “Midwinter Break” unfolds, Stella switches places with Gerry as the most annoying half because from the outside, her mood shifts seem extreme, but as an audience privy to her inner world, her behavior is slightly more sympathetic. Maybe skip church and have individual and couple’s counseling. Also, Gerry is one of those guys who outsources all his needs to Stella so she cannot have a second of peace without him needing something from her. He even interrupts her bedside prayers. Dude, you know that you would die if you do not know where your medicine is. Grow up. As the movie progresses, Gerry starts bringing the drinks to the table (sideways Nancy Pelosi clap). There is definitely the theme of a woman wondering about her life’s meaning if she is not in service to another person. Gerry may be in love, but if she leaves, he will die.
The real lesson of the movie is not to conflate the length of a marriage with the health of a marriage. If you are a fan of (the British) Manville and Hinds, then “Midwinter Break” is a must see. They are great actors. They take an innately frustrating experience of watching this couple’s push and pull dynamic and make it as relatable and palatable as possible. They have amazing chemistry, and their strongest work are the scenes with no dialogue, just body language. Still, it is like watching a waking nightmare. The adorable, older couple out on the town are as much of a mess as the teens, and maybe worse because at least the teens will break up with each other. If they stay together, they will spend the rest of their lives as if they are cats at the door convinced that they want to go outside but are not outdoor cats. No offense intended to Catholics, but divorce, babes.
While it may be realistic for the story to be about couples stuck in these dynamics until they die, it does not make for a satisfying viewing experience. That ninety-minute runtime felt as if it would never end. If it is faithful to the source material, great, but then it is amazing/horrifying to think that this narrative is what makes a book into a bestselling hit. Dios mio. It must be relatable, which is where the horror comes in. Are y’all just miserable and white knuckling it to the grave? Do you know who I relate to in “Midwinter Break?” Kathy. She is friendly and minding her business when she suddenly gets a trauma dump, which I often do not mind; thus, why I am a lawyer. She does not ask for it. It just comes to her. True story. Stella probably forgot that Kathy exists the minute that she left. Romantic relationship centered people, i.e. most of humanity, are wild. You will do anything but address the problem then fix it, including tell a stranger your secrets. Meanwhile Kathy is alone and happy in her little place.
“Midwinter Break” is a perfect way to cure your wanderlust, especially if you want to visit the Netherlands. If you do not want to visit the Netherlands, you will want to after watching this movie. Though the film is beautiful, and the acting is phenomenal, the story is too ambitious in trying to grapple with all the historical European tragedies of the twentieth century and a marriage at a long overdue turning point.
