Dir: Mike Leigh / UK / 2010 / 129 mins / Cert: 12A
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman, David Bradley, Karina Fernandez, Martin Savage
Language: English
Mike Leigh's gentle yet powerful new film about family, friendship and ageing is a compassionate and considered work, balancing humour alongside its more melancholic notes.
Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) are a good-hearted couple sliding towards old age. As they potter around their allotment or cook curries for their friends, the only remarkable thing about them is how contented they are. But two of their friends don't share their good fortune: Mary (Lesley Manville), a work colleague of Gerri's who bemoans her disastrous love life and drinks too much to try and keep up a cheerful front, and Tom's old mate Ken (Peter Wight), equally lonely and unhappy, and trying desperately to stay afloat.
The film unfolds over four seasons, an accumulation of encounters and mostly small events that highlight Leigh's skill in taking the fabric of everyday life and turning it into something resonant and meaningful.
