2023-05-06 13:00:10
ARTE.TV − ON DEMAND − SERIES
The State of the Union is what the Sovereign of the United Kingdom or the President of the United States discourses on every year. Disunity is a constant peril and it takes words to keep it at bay. What goes for the States goes for the couples, hence the title of the two seasons written by Nick Hornby, novelist and screenwriter, and directed by Stephen Frears, each taking place on its side of the Atlantic.
A few years apart (the day after Brexit, in 2019-2020, then the day after the assault on the Capitol, in January 2021), State of the Union uses the same device: ten minutes before an appointment for a marital therapy session, a couple gets together and warms up before unpacking in front of a witness. The first ten episodes pit a London couple, Louise (Rosamund Pike) and Tom (Chris O’Dowd), in their forties (he a little older than her) who are dealing with Louise’s infidelity.
She’s a gerontologist, he’s an unemployed rock critic. She loves the series Call the Midwife, which he finds foolishly sentimental; he likes the films of Preston Sturges, which she criticizes for being in black and white. To say nothing of the ballot papers they slipped into the ballot box on the day of the Brexit referendum.
Readers of Nick Hornby (Funny Girl ; High fidelity ; Juliet, Naked…) know his brilliance and his superficiality, which is reflected in the ease of certain replies. Still, this minimalist approach touches on the truth of married life through Stephen Frears’ precise, almost invisible directing and engaging actors.
Confrontation between sexagenarians
Perhaps because Hornby and Frears do not play at home the time of the second season, located in a wealthy city on the East Coast of the United States, this one does not reach the same heights. The confrontation between Scott (Brendan Gleeson) and Ellen (Patricia Clarkson), retired sixties and grandparents whose paths separate, is still worth seeing.
These two find themselves in a coffee shop whose owner proudly displays his non-binarity (Esco Jouléy, who enthusiastically assumes his role of revealing the fears and desires of his customers). For Ellen, it is about preparing for a harmonious separation – she is about to join a Quaker community; Scott wants to keep their union afloat at all costs. The power of Brendan Gleeson and the agility of Patricia Clarkson overcome the platitudes of the text. And then, Stephen Frears and his camera are still there, at the exact place where life emerges from this ordinary story.
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