It’s a return to Leigh’s working-class
contemporary almost neorealism’esque roots after 1999’s triumph (but a
period film about wealthy people)- Topsy-Turvy
A really strong opening shot. It’s at a
nursing home with a cleaning woman (who turns out to be Spall and Manville’s
daughter (actress Alison Garland). It’s a long take (2 mins), grounds the
film in neorealism (a shot of a woman cleaning going about her day to day
would make Cesare Zavattini proud) and is framed beautifully in the
hallway
We’re off and running from there with a semi-montage
of the family working their depressing jobs—a grocery clerk, a cleaning
woman, a taxi driver— the main family and ensemble live in an ugly
housing project— there’s arguing, ugliness, and Andrew Dickson’s
downbeat score
Sally Hawkins is part of the larger ensemble
here and is good in her film role (only TV work and a cameo/extra work
here and there)
People watching television (this is a trait in
Leigh’s oeuvre—Tim Roth watching tv in Meantime
in 1983), overweight (these actors, refreshingly, do not look like
movie stars including an almost unrecognizably overweight James Corden),
drinking, eating junk food—throwing abuses at each other. This is no
longer Thatcher’s England but this is a strong social-realist work.
It would be in the archives anyway with the
acting and dedication to Leigh’s authentic, observational style—but there
are also 3-5 shots here where Leigh intentionally shoots the events
through doorways (including the opening through the hall). There’s one
through the garage doors at 6 minutes and another looking into the bedroom
at 38 minutes (with actor Daniel Mays) and the blue siding of the doors
matching the drapes. This isn’t Ozu, and there are only a few of these (if
there were more this would be a top 10 film of 2002) but still—very solid
work from Leigh. Unfortunately, he doesn’t keep this up and the last 20-30
minutes or so lacks it completely.
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