Pairs -2015/16-. The Best Movie

From fellow soldiers forming a platonic bond to a romance as beautiful as its costumes, the best movie pairs of 2015 spanned every kind of relationship, but made us want to be part of every single one of them. Yes, even the one between a spy and the villainess trying to kill her.

BY KATEY RICH

Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay)—45 Years

How easily can a 45-year marriage come apart? In Andrew Haigh’s remarkably tense, but also romantic, drama, Rampling and Courtenay unravel decades of domestic bliss in a series of sharply written, exquisitely acted scenes from a domestic life that, until recently, seemed perfect. Just a few years after Amour, it’s another contender for the best-ever cinematic depiction of marriage.

Photo: Courtesy of TIFF.

James Donovan (Tom Hanks) and Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance)—Bridge of Spies

An old-fashioned drama about men of morals in difficult times, Bridge of Spies is also a story of surprising friendship, and it would not work if Hanks and Rylance didn’t so immediately sell the unlikely bond between Brooklyn lawyer Donovan and Russian spy Abel. Even when the film reaches a hard-won happy ending, it’s sad to see the two part.

Photo: Courtesy of DreamWorks.

Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) and Tony (Emory Cohen)—Brooklyn

We’ve already praised Cohen for giving one of the best overlooked performances of the year in this period-piece gem, but just as remarkable is what he and Ronan do together, as two good Brooklyn kids crossing an ethnic barrier to find love together. A date at Coney Island has never seemed so romantic.