{"id":49252,"date":"2026-02-19T09:24:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=49252"},"modified":"2026-02-19T09:24:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:24:41","slug":"in-midwinter-break-a-married-couples-beliefs-are-tested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/02\/in-midwinter-break-a-married-couples-beliefs-are-tested.html","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Midwinter Break,\u2019 a Married Couple\u2019s Beliefs Are Tested"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Focus Features \/ Universal Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the new film \u201cMindwinter Break,\u201d director Polly Findlay and actors Lesley Manville and Ciar\u00e1n Hinds deliver a study of marriage, faith and the small, subtle moments that define a relationship. The film, adapted from the bestselling novel by Bernard MacLaverty, relies on intimate performances and an emphasis on the actors\u2019 craft rather than spectacle.<\/p>\n

The story\u2019s dramatic tension unravels when Stella (Manville) and Jerry (Hinds) embark on a trip to Amsterdam. Stella is quietly tuned in to the supernatural, reeling from a near tragedy in her youth, while Jerry is practical and detached. The trip forces the two to look inward to decide if their futures are intertwined or not.<\/p>\n

Findlay, making her feature debut after a lengthy career in theater, called the project a kind of \u201cgateway drug\u201d coming from her theater work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a film that is very much about the acting and about the performance,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we were really aware going in that the quality of the film was going to kind of like live and die on on, whether or not we gave these two fantastic actors the space and the time to do the thing that they do so brilliantly. So, in some respects, that felt like something that I was quite familiar with from theater, because it felt like a big part of the challenge of it was creating a set that was reactive and responsive and like genuinely engaged and interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Findlay said she and the cast were guided by an appreciation for the source material\u2019s language and emotional precision. She recalled being drawn to passages that could \u201cmove in a blink to the mystical,\u201d and she wanted that sensibility to \u201clive under the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinds, who has built a career on both large-scale epics such as \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and \u201cJustice League\u201d and quiet character work such as \u201cBelfast\u201d and \u201cSilence,\u201d described his preparation with Manville and Findlay as a collaborative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very fortunate in this day and age to have Leslie and I two days with Polly just reading the piece,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That freedom is central to what the film achieves. Hinds said the rehearsal period enabled the actors to \u201cplay the scene as truthfully,\u201d whether that meant \u201cbeing emotionally honest or hiding emotions.\u201d The result, he suggested, is a performance style focused on immediacy and human fallibility rather than melodrama.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great experience,\u201d he said. \u201cI really meant a lot to me, actually be able to be able to play like this, because it’s very rare one gets that kind of opportunity to be so personal and so connected in the search for truth and honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although there is a moment of confrontation in the film regarding the spiritual versus secular outlooks, Findlay emphasized that faith in the film is less about doctrine than about perception. The director explained that Stella \u201cspots miracles in places,\u201d and that the film\u2019s spirituality is embodied in \u201cthe sense of being live to the world and each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinds described Jerry as \u201cquite a needy person,\u201d and likened him to \u201ca child who’s \u2026 has a deep-seated fear of being abandoned.\u201d The actor said Jerry\u2019s struggle is not merely ideological but profoundly emotional\u2014he loves his partner and fears losing the bond that has sustained him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s ashamed of himself. He loves this woman so deeply, and he needs her so in between that he’s a bit of a mess, but he will try and hold her up,\u201d Hinds said.<\/p>\n

Certain sentences from the book felt essential to the film\u2019s tone, Findlay explained, and she worked to preserve their quality. One memorable line from her reflection compares sensitivity to the world to an allergic reaction:<\/p>\n

\u201cBernard talks about pollen sensitizing your nose to sneezing, so that you have the pollen in your nose. And there’s a sort of sense of like, \u2018Oh, I’m just about like that.\u2019 You feel super sensitive.\u201d That heightened awareness, she said, is shared by both characters over the course of the weekend, giving them a sharpened \u201cliveness to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMindwinter Break\u201d stakes everything on two performances and a director\u2019s trust in subtlety. Findlay embraced that challenge, acknowledging that \u201cthe quality of the film was going to kind of like live and die on, whether or not we gave these two fantastic actors the space and the time to do the thing that they do so brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Findlay framed the closing moments as a kind of leap\u2014an act of faith within the relationship rather than toward any outwardly religious overtones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a decision to have faith in each other, to find a moment of sort of chapter change and trust, and to take a leap into what feels like the unknown,\u201d she said, calling that choice \u201can amazing thing to do at that stage in a relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMidwinter Break,\u201d directed by Polly Findlay and starring Lesley Manville and Ciar\u00e1n Hinds, releases February 20 from Focus Features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the new film \u201cMindwinter Break,\u201d director Polly Findlay and actors Lesley Manville and Ciar\u00e1n Hinds deliver a study of marriage, faith and the small, subtle moments that define a relationship. The film, adapted from the bestselling novel by Bernard MacLaverty, relies on intimate performances and an emphasis on the actors\u2019 craft rather than spectacle.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":49258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nIn \u2018Midwinter Break,\u2019 a Married Couple\u2019s Beliefs Are Tested<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cMindwinter Break\u201d delivers a study of marriage, faith and the small, subtle moments that define a relationship.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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