Midwinter Break is a two-hander with Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville as a long time married couple who are struggling to get through a crisis in their relationship.

Midwinter Break does manage to be touching and well acted, but it fails to launch in a lot of ways. With two such talented actors and a woman director (Polly Findlay) I had hope for this one, but it wasn’t exceptionally good.

Stella (Lesley Manville) and Gerry (Ciarán Hinds) are Irish, but have been living in Scotland for years. They left Ireland because of incidents during “the troubles” that affected their lives and their futures in significant ways.

Stella is a devout Catholic. She has secret longings to be even more devout that she has hidden from Gerry. Gerry is a nonbeliever who can’t stop himself from ridiculing Stella because she does have faith. And Gerry drinks. Both of them feel the marriage crumbling, but neither knows how to fix it.

Stella books a week in Amsterdam as a Christmas gift for the two of them. But she has secret plans of her own that would end the union between them. They involve a sisterhood of nuns who live alone in a protected compound in Amsterdam that she learned about over 30 years ago. When she learns that sisterhood no longer exists, we find out what is troubling her.

Instead of telling each other what they are thinking, they share their stories with strangers and we learn what happened during “the troubles” in flashbacks.

The film is slow and the path it takes through the plot is spotty. The couple are given to long silences and arguments in public places where they need to keep their voices down. The way the story resolved felt rushed and incomplete. I thought it should have gone deeper to forge something stronger between the two of them.

To summarize, two good actors did their best with an undeveloped script. They managed to make it a touching film despite that.

If you’ve seen this film, which is streaming on Peacock, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. The comments are open.