Review: 'Ordinary Love' is a marriage story that relies on extraordinary acting

The drama “Ordinary Love” bears, in many ways, the most accurate movie title of all time — because it gently and precisely chronicles a year of crisis in the life of a most ordinary married couple.

Joan (Lesley Manville) and Tom (Liam Neeson) live near Belfast, and have what appears to be be a long and mostly happy marriage. They take walks together to keep fit, they go shopping, and they banter teasingly about who gets to take down the Christmas decorations. There is sadness in their relationship — a daughter, Debbie, who died young, is mentioned throughout the movie, though without much detail.

Then, one night, Joan takes a shower and notices a lump near her left breast. Thus begins an odyssey of doctors and tests, from mammogram to MRI, through surgery and chemotherapy. Joan copes with nausea, fatigue, pain and hair loss — using Tom as her emotional punching bag when her suffering is too great. Tom tries to stay strong for her sake, but sometimes loses his temper over how ineffectual he is in the face of Joan’s cancer.

Playwright Owen McCafferty, making his screenwriting debut, based the story on the experiences he and his wife, Peggy, endured when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The result is painstaking detail, presented with care and empathy by husband-and-wife directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn. 

If there’s a weakness in “Ordinary Love,” it’s that there’s little defining Tom and Joan’s life apart from their cancer fight. It’s up to Neeson and Manville to fill in those blanks through their tender, lived-in performances. Manville, especially, gives a flinty, empathetic performance, finding Joan’s breaking point and the resilience to push past it.

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‘Ordinary Love’

★★★

Opened February 14 in select cities; opens Friday, March 6, at Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for some sexuality/nudity. Running time: 92 minutes.