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Sometimes — and the heartbreaking drama "45 Years" is one of those times — the greatest thing a director can do is set up a situation and stand out of the way while the actors run with it.

Director Andrew Haigh's script, adapting David Constantine's short story "In Another Country," begins as simply as one can imagine: Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay) have been married for 45 years and will celebrate their anniversary soon in the village meeting hall.

The script peppers in details about Kate and Geoff. They are retired — she was a teacher, he worked in a nearby factory — and living in the English countryside. They have no children, and their politics are left-wing, a by-product of their youths in the 1960s. And this upcoming party is a make-good for their 40th anniversary event, canceled when Geoff went in for bypass surgery.

But there's one piece of information, delivered early in the story, that colors all that is to follow: Geoff gets a letter from authorities in Switzerland, informing him that they have found the frozen and preserved body of Katya, his girlfriend before Kate. Katya had slipped into a crevasse while climbing in the Alps and was presumed dead.

Katya, we learn, was the one subject Kate and Geoff never discussed. But, as Haigh quietly digs deeper into this couple's lives, Geoff's memory of her has been present all along. Kate, at one point, notes that she can "smell Katya's perfume in the room."

The scenario, so simple on the surface and so deep upon examination, is a perfect showcase for two of Britain's finest actors.

Courtenay, whose movie career stretches back to "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" (1962) and "Doctor Zhivago" (1965), captures a wealth of moods as Geoff, who goes from happily doddering to gravely sincere in a heartbeat.

He is nicely matched, and ultimately surpassed, by Rampling, who received her first Oscar nomination for this (after a stellar career that has included "The Night Porter," "Swimming Pool" and many other films) by quietly and forcefully distilling Kate's sense of betrayal that her marriage hasn't been what she thought it was.

Together with Haigh's unobtrusive direction, the stars make "45 Years" one of the most honest and emotionally shattering movies about a marriage ever made.

Twitter: @moviecricket —

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'45 Years'

A portrait of a marriage, and how one event colors everything, is beautifully and achingly painted by stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay.

Where • Broadway Centre Cinemas.

When • Opens Friday, Feb. 5.

Rating • R for language and brief sexuality

Running time • 95 minutes.