Anniversary Review: Diane Lane Leads Jan Komasa’s Well-Acted Dystopian Political Thriller

In Jan Komasa’s Anniversary, Kyle Chandler’s Paul Taylor plays Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” on the night of their 25th wedding anniversary, a song his wife, Ellen (Diane Lane), loves so much, leading to a sweet moment of them dancing and kissing. The song, one of the band’s biggest hit singles from 1986, reflects the theme of hope and persistence even during trying times. This mirrors the Taylors’ everlasting love for each other as a happy, married couple with equally successful careers. Ellen is a renowned professor who lectures on political science at Georgetown University, while Paul is the owner and chef of a restaurant.

Almost all their kids have carved own successes, beginning with Anna (Madeline Brewer), who is a popular standup comedian, while Cynthia (Zoey Deutch) and her husband Rob (Daryl McCormack) are both attorneys practising environmental law. The youngest one, Birdie (Mckenna Grace), in the meantime, is still in high school. However, the Taylors’ only son, Josh (Dylan O’Brien), doesn’t share the same career-minded success as his two older sisters, whose writing profession remains in limbo. But overall, it looks as if the Taylors are doing well as a close-knit family.

The movie opens with Ellen and Paul celebrating their aforementioned anniversary and initially has a wonderful gathering with their children, family and friends at the comfort of the large suburban home’s spacious backyard in Washington, D.C. Everything seems perfect, until Josh brings his fiancée Liz (Phoebe Dynevor) home to meet his parents. Unlike the more neutral Paul, Ellen isn’t particularly warm to Liz’s presence, despite the latter having been trying her best to make a good impression.

Apparently, Ellen remembers Liz as her former Georgetown student who used to condemn her controversial ideologies in her thesis. That was nearly a decade ago, and now, Liz’s reappearance concerns her that she might bring a bad influence to the family. Working from Lori Rosene-Gambino’s debut screenplay, Komasa navigates the story in a deliberate slow-burn approach, with the introduction of Liz marking the beginning of the end of the Taylors.

Liz’s subsequent new book, called The Change: The New Social Contract, has been gaining traction among many readers two years later, where her bold content strongly advocates for a unified America that abolishes the left-wing and right-wing political parties, replaced by a one-party system with a redesign of the U.S. flag’s stars positioned in the centre. No doubt it’s a thought-provoking what-if scenario of how a totalitarian government can cause a seismic shift not only politically and socially but also personally, evidently in the Taylors.

The story stretches through a time-jump narrative over the five years, expanding from Liz’s influence found in the book, inspiring the political movement to the radical change that slowly tore the Taylor family apart. Interestingly, Komasa keeps his story intimate and personal on the gradual consequences affecting the Taylors, even with the underlying dystopian political thriller elements.

It’s a refreshing change of pace from the usual expectations commonly seen in such a genre, but at the same time, I wish Komasa would delve deeper into the significance of how a book and a movement capable of turning the existing government administration upside down and drastically changing everything. Instead, he opts for the vague approach of seemingly wanting his audiences to fill in the blanks, but frankly, a story like this would have a stronger resonance if Anniversary digs into the specifics.

While the lack of details may come across as a major flaw in this movie, it’s hard to deny that Komasa still manages to maintain enough verbal tension with a stellar cast all around. Diane Lane excels the most as the steadfast matriarch who tries her best to keep her family together in the face of adversity, while Chandler brings an understated quality to his role as a father who doesn’t take sides other than maintaining neutrality in his family.

The younger cast, ranging from Dynevor‘s quietly intimidating turn as the radical advocate Liz to Brewer’s spunky role as Anna. Then, there’s O’Brien, whose transformation from a struggling and futile son in the family before morphing to a completely different person as the movie progresses, nearly steals the show here.