• 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.
  • Recommend