Life Is Sweet

I'm starting to think that Mike Leigh could make a story about boring people (like me) posting reviews online and make it and them interesting. I don't think I'm being overly sentimental when I say that, sometimes we need films that show us that, on the whole, people are good and trying to do the best they can in a difficult world. I don't see many directors who are willing to show us flawed characters who fight through difficulties with heart and humor and work things out without the aid of some ridiculous device. Leigh is brave enough, creative enough and has enough respect for his audience to show us, in Life is Sweet, that sometimes caring and patience with those we love is our only chance and what we are generally stuck with anyway.

...are the small ones. Mike Leigh worked with his relatively small cast (five main cast members and about four supporting cast members), improvising characters, devising scenarios and plots, and came up with this; one of his earliest masterpieces. The plot is simple enough. A couple of days in the life of a working class London family. There isn't really a plot as such. A couple of fairly deep issues are dealt with, such as eating disorders and depression, but other than a few moments, all we are doing is watching a family live their life: a strong hard-working mother (Alison Steadman); a weaker easily-led by his mates father (Jim Broadbent); and their twin daughters: Natalie (Claire Skinner) - resourceful and kind-hearted but with a strange tendency to wear men's shirts and down pints - and Nicola (Jane Horrocks) - screwed up, rude, irrational and painfully insecure in both her looks and her intelligence. The performances brought out by this form of filmmaking are superb - as they are in all of Leigh's movies (Secrets & Lies, Career Girls and All Or Nothing are all worthy of viewing, but especially Secrets & Lies). However, Alison Steadman is the standout (perhaps for no other reason than she has the most screen time), the driving force that brings all the family together. The scene in which she finally cracks and loses that nervous laugh to tell Nicola a few home truths and break down the barriers that Nicola has put up between herself and the rest of the world, is so beautifully written and terrifically performed that it is a shame that Steadman in particular was not Oscar-nominated. Only one or two criticisms struck me. One was a slight lack of development of the other daughter. What exactly DOES make her tick? Am I merely stereotyping by assuming she is supposed to be a lesbian? Or is she just happy being so masculine in her dress-sense and mannerisms - (she isn't even offended by a client who calls her a 'good lad')? We never find out, because the film focuses a little more on her sister. It certainly appears that her mother suspects her daughter of being gay, but for some reason the subject is never brought up. Similarly, a couple of loose ends are never tied up. The caravan and the restaurant in particular. But I guess we have the prerogative to make our own endings up haven't we, so that's a good thing in many ways. I think at the end of the day, people will either like all of Mike Leigh's films or none of them. And I'm in the former group. His work is beautiful and always touching.

source: Life Is Sweet

Trailer—Life Is Sweet

Life Is Sweet

I usually love Leigh's stuff. Grownups, Nuts in May and Abigail's Party are almost genius, but Life is Sweet is very disappointing. One can usually recognise the characters portrayed or even associate yourself with them or their situations but only Alison Steadman's character seems real. Jane Horrocks is really talented but her character here is too over the top with the most irritating voice since JarJar Binks!! Clare Skinner is good as Nicola's twin sister and they are uncannily alike. Yes they are ordinary working class people and their life is humdrum for the most part. Timothy Spall is wasted in an underplayed comic role which does not really work. The scene where Alison confronts her daughter, Nicola is a good one and reality shines through but for most of the film the parts are not as good as the whole.

Mike Leigh is one of my favorite contemporary directors (right up there with Oliver Assayas). I know he wont be everyone's cup of tea- I'm sure plenty of people will find his stories rather slow and meandering, but I find them humble, charming, wonderfully poignant, often funny, and above all heartfelt and honest. This film, like many of his other films is one that I'll revisit again because of the beauty Leigh finds in simplicity. For our full review of Life is Sweet and hundreds of other reviews, articles, and podcast episodes visit True Myth Media!

"Life is Sweet" meanders purposelessly from comedy into drama as it tells of a chapter in the life of an English family of four. On the up side, the film conjures up some funny moments mostly from its many quirky characters as it drifts into increasingly serious moments of drama. On the downside, the version I Tivo'd was technically inferior with muddled sound, poor quality video, no closed captions, and didn't end as much as it just quit leaving too many questions unanswered. Overall, "Life is Sweet" is a good attempt which ultimately fails to deliver in spite of its excellent cast, numerous awards, and modest critical acclaim. (C+)

British director Mike Leigh presents yet another optimistically titled working-class comedy, set in a humdrum suburban London neighborhood where life, at times is anything but sweet. The film showcases Leigh's pre-occupation with (typically British) dysfunctional family life: dad's an underachiever; mum's a working housewife; but both are able to maintain remarkably high spirits after raising twin teenage daughters, one a demure apprentice plumber and the other an anti-social, bulimic, post-punk dropout. Except for a lack of political criticism the film could almost be a matching bookend to Leigh's previous 'High Hopes'. Both films share a sense of humor rooted in the director's keen observations of daily life at its lowest common denominator, with a story drawn around simple, memorable characters created (as in every Mike Leigh movie) by the entire cast before a script was even written.

UK films are not easily available on this side of the pond, so this reviewer was first exposed to Jane Horrocks in this wonderfully perfect little film, only to later catch her in Little Voice. To say she was brilliant in both films is an understatement. The odd thing is that the second film seems to be well-known worldwide but this one seems to have been lost in the shuffle. The genius here is taking a small but rock-solid cast and capturing the attention of the audience almost from the first scene, with the daily trials and tribulations of a family trying to survive the vicissitudes of the outside world and the internal prison of their own making. The entire cast is great, the writing sharp, the direction polished. But the performance from Horrocks -- and that voice! -- will haunt you forever.