Director: Michal Grzybowski
Script: Michal Grzybowski, Tomasz Walesiak
Cast: Lukasz Simlat, Agnieszka Duleba-Kasza, Andrzej Seweryn, Andrzej Grabowski, Dobromir Dymecki, Wiktoria Filus, Sebastian Pawlak, Jan Jurkowski
Running time: 100 minutes
Year: 2021/24
Certificate: 15
Seasons begins with actor couple Marcin (Lukasz Simlat) and Ola (Agnieszka Duleba-Kasza) walking to the theatre they’re both working at, having a marital spat along the way, with Marcin trying to work out why Ola is giving him the ‘silent treatment’. After dropping their two daughters off at the theatre crèche they continue to argue until Ola reveals that she actually slept with someone while they’d been on a two month break, a fact which Marcin can’t handle, him being an egocentric and insecure actor. They are currently acting in Peter Pan at the theatre and Marcin, playing Captain Hook, somewhat amusingly sabotages the play in front of a children’s matinee performance by starting a fight with Ola’s previous short-term lover.
Directed by Michał Grzybowski from a script that he wrote with Tomasz Walesiak, the film follows the traditional three-act structure by revolving around three stage productions, adapting the tone of the failing relationship to that of each play. Hence, what follows is that during three different stage performances fantasy mixes with the harsh realities of the lives of a separating couple as they air their private ‘laundry’ during rehearsals and performances. And so while Peter Pan informs the film’s first act with a mix of action and comedy, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House shifts the tone to meditative and reflective in the film’s second act, as Ola reveals the roots of her unhappiness with Marcin, and, finally, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream gives Marcin an opportunity to put up a final fight for the relationship, both on and off stage, in a rather rueful way.
Playing the ‘heated’ Marcin, Lukasz Simlat erupts during the first act before plunging into deep despair during the second, and then regains his confidence in the third act. As the more restrained Ola, Agnieszka Duleba-Kasza is very tempered in her reactions, especially in front of others, but is clearly very resentful when she is finally able to focus entirely on Marcin.
The rest of the cast are very solid, too, led by Andrzej Grabowski as Marcin’s father – also a member of the company – who rather amusingly threatens that each performance will be his last – and Wiktoria Filus as Ewa, a young and upcoming actor who has a brief infatuation with Marcin after he forces a kiss on her aimed at making Ola jealous.
Seasons leavens the heightened drama with several instances of humour, including an on-going background conversation between two male actors who keep arguing about the pros and cons of various Robert De Niro and Al Pacino performances.
While Seasons is a very well made film it suffers due to not really having any really likeable characters, especially the central couple who are both somewhat narcissistic in nature. And, because Marcel’s emotions are always bubbling heatedly near the surface, his character is exhausting to watch for the whole film. Although, to be fair, I did find myself growing to root for him towards the end and found the last stage-set scene quite emotionally engaging; a testament to Lukasz Simlat’s excellent acting.
Overall, whether you’re Polish, English or any other nationality, Seasons is worth a watch, but probably only once as, to my mind, it’s a one-watch kind of movie.
The film is now online on Viaplay via Amazon Prime.
