Two astonishing performances accompany the raw yet poignant fury of movie 45 years

TWO astonishing performances by Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay accompany this searing drama that is charged with raw, yet poignant fury.

45 YEARS (M)

Director: Andrew Haigh (Weekend)

Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay.

Rating : ****

Time waits for no man ... and wife

A searing drama charged with raw, yet poignant fury, 45 Years’ riveting story begins in the English countryside.

Geoff (Tom Courtenay) and Kate (Charlotte Rampling) are soon to celebrate a landmark wedding anniversary with family and friends.

Word arrives that Swiss police have found the immaculately preserved corpse of a 27-year-old woman in an Alpine glacier. Forensics reveal she died over a half-century ago.

Geoff has been notified of the discovery, as he was her boyfriend at the time. The pair were on a hiking trip when she fell through a hidden fissure in the ice.

What follows in 45 Years is an achingly precise measurement of the devastating effect this news will have over coming days.

Unsettling news for Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling in the movie 45 Years.

Geoff has always been selective with the truth about the tragedy. Likewise, Kate has kept her curiosity to the barest minimum.

Now there is nowhere for either spouse to hide. Will facing their marriage’s own hidden fissure be the end of them? Or hand them the missing piece that will finally make their life’s union complete?

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An astonishing performance by Charlotte Rampling in the new film 45 Years saw her nominated for an Oscar for best actor last month. Picture: Agatha A. Nitecka / Sundance Selects via AP

The astonishing performances of Rampling (Oscar-nominated) and Courtenay combine into a powder keg of repressed emotions. With just one false move — or is that one truthful word? — it feels as if their characters could combust right before you.

FULL LIST OF OSCAR NOMINATIONS

*45 Years opens on Thursday, February 18

Originally published as Two astonishing performances accompany the raw yet poignant fury of movie 45 years