As this cold time of year still has its claws in us, there’s no better time to sink into the warm Irish melancholy of Midwinter Break. If you’re drawn to the kind of melodrama that quietly unfurls in the pained faces of its actors, with the requisite subtext of Catholic guilt and whiskey as therapy, then this adaptation of Bernard MacLaverty’s 2017 novel will scratch your itch.
Drawing loosely from MacLaverty’s own experience as a Belfaster who left in 1975 amidst The Troubles, becoming an expat in Scotland with his family, Midwinter Break opens with Gerry and Stella Gilmore (Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville) 30 years after their dramatic exodus from Ireland. Now retired empty-nesters with a grown child in another country, the pair have settled into a relationship of benign, habitual neglect. Gerry’s attached to his recliner like it’s a second skin while Stella is restless and seeking a more purposeful future. A devout Catholic, she survived a violent event in Belfast which she and Gerry have primarily swept under the rug. But as she reflects in the opening narration, “A single day can change the course of any life,” and their joint silence on the harrowing experience that forever changed their shared life’s trajectory is weighing heavily on her now.
Returning from midnight mass alone, Stella impulsively books a surprise weekend trip to Amsterdam for Gerry’s holiday gift. While it would barely register to most as an impulsive adventure, for the Gilmores, it’s clear that this shedding of their norms will shake loose more than a few uncomfortable truths. With their statins packed and comfortable travel clothes crammed into carry-ons, this breakaway is clearly going to turn out to be a more of an existential turning point than a romp of Red Light District fun.
Adapted by MacLaverty and playwright/screenwriter Nick Payne (We Live In Time), Midwinter Break retains the intimacy of the original prose even as the writers open it up to exist as a strong two-hander play—one perfectly suited to the strengths of Manville and Hinds. While this is director Polly Findlay’s first feature film, her prodigious directing talents in the current British theater scene, staging both classics and contemporary productions for the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, translates well when orchestrating the private, profound unspooling of this couple.
Through their sightseeing, hotel-room absolutions, not well-hidden dependencies, and discontented shared meals, the Gilmores open an almost voyeuristic window into their relationship, both its present and how it arrived at this point. All the tiny accumulations of a life that’s been caring yet disconnected are on full display. Amsterdam’s attractions and history are used well to highlight the disparities between Stella and Gerry, with churches and Irish pubs attracting them like neutral corners mid-boxing match, used to assess what’s opening up inside of them.
Though the locales are well-framed and inviting, Midwinter Break lives and breathes in the performances of Manville and Hines, who handily shoulder the intricacies of the piece with aplomb. Manville in particular expresses aching loneliness in her entire countenance, and it creates the foundation upon which Stella’s story builds with poignance and desperation. In turn, while Hinds is given less depth of character to work with in general until the second half of the film, he still works hard to let us see the humanity in Gerry as he opens up to others, sharing regrets while enjoying his primary vice.
While one might expect a fiery implosion between these two powerhouses, Findlay keeps a firm hand on the tone and temperament of her leads. She charts a more understated journey in keeping with how the Gilmores exist with one another. That means when truths are revealed, the impact feels authentic to this story and how these two have existed as a couple for decades. Midwinter Break is most interested in the realities of long-term relationships—with unfaced trauma and graceful forgiveness alike—more than concrete absolutes, which is what makes it a valuable meditation on the imperfection of marriage.
Director: Polly Findlay
Writer: Bernard MacLaverty, Nick Payne
Starring: Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds
Release Date: February 20, 2026
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