Movie Reviews : A Tweedy Family Tree in ‘Sense of History’

“A Sense of History” (at the Nuart with “The Tune”) is something new for British director Mike Leigh. Though no stranger to short films (this one is 25 minutes), Leigh has never before done a piece of any length where he didn’t have a hand in creating the words.

But when Leigh came across what is basically an extended monologue written by actor Jim Broadbent (almost unrecognizable from his role as the father in “Life Is Sweet”), he was so taken with the material he wanted to put it on film. It is not hard to see why.

Broadbent plays the very tweedy Earl of Leete, the 23rd in a line that extends back to the 11th Century, a man bound and determined to tell the tale of what he went through to ensure that the family didn’t fizzle out with him.

A very English story of the perils and privileges of aristocracy, “A Sense of History” gets progressively more audacious as it goes along. Wandering around his enormous acreage, a dog at his side, the unrepentant earl calmly reveals the increasingly outrageous actions he has committed in the name of tradition and decency. Poignant, funny, shocking and totally lacking in sentimentality.