The Sense of an Ending

Tony Webster is a divorced, retired man living an unremarkable and solitary life in England. His routine is interrupted when he learns that the mother of Veronica, a girlfriend from his university years, has left him something in her will: a diary kept by his closest friend from that time, who later dated Veronica. The diary is now held by an older Veronica, who proves as elusive as she was decades earlier. Recovering it draws Tony back through memories of first love, a broken relationship and old friendships, and pushes him to reconsider the person he has been.

The film is directed by Ritesh Batra, his third feature after The Lunchbox and Our Souls at Night, both released in 2017 alongside this one, and is written by Nick Payne from Julian Barnes's novel. Jim Broadbent plays Tony, with Charlotte Rampling as the older Veronica, Harriet Walter as his ex-wife Margaret, Michelle Dockery as his daughter Susie, and Matthew Goode and Emily Mortimer in supporting roles. The production involved around fifty credited cast members and well over a hundred crew.

Released in March 2017, the British drama had a modest theatrical run, taking roughly five million dollars worldwide. Audiences and critics landed in much the same place: on TMDB it holds a rating of 6.3 from 227 votes, and the critics' score is also 6.3, drawn from 123 reviews.