Quick takes on 5 Mike Leigh films

My previous experiences with director Mike Leigh include only his newer films, Mr Turner (which I loved) and Peterloo (which I did not). So today I’m going back to look at a few of his earlier pieces, starting with a television film from 1983. Meantime features a great cast of early-in-their-career actors including Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, and Alfred Molina. It focuses on a family of four, mom Mavis, dad Frank, and adult sons Mark and Colin, who are living mostly on welfare in a tiny flat in London. Mavis is the only one working, while Frank and Mark have nothing but excuses for why they aren’t, and Colin, who is a touch slow mentally, just skates by. Frank loafs around the house all day, and Mark and Colin hang out with Mark’s friends, including a rude and rambunctious skinhead. The four family members spend the entirety of the film blaming each other for the family’s situation, and ganging up on Colin since he doesn’t protect himself against their verbal abuses. Mavis’s sister Barbara married a businessman, John, a few years ago, and they are living in a traditional suburban house in a definite middle class neighborhood, and you can tell their societal elevation rubs at Mavis and Frank. When visiting their home (to which John has to drive them, since the family doesn’t own a car), Barbara sees how Colin is treated, and later offers him a job to come over and help her redecorate her house. Colin accepts, but becomes withdrawn when Mark shows up too. The viewer gets a glimpse too that, as expected, Barbara’s marriage to John proves that the grass isn’t always greener. This is a very engaging film, deeply introspective, and it turns your opinions of people on a dime by the end. Tim Roth’s portrayal of Colin is incredible, and Gary Oldman as the skinhead friend steals the camera every time he’s on screen. ★★★½

Life Is Sweet is just a wonderful, feel good kind of movie (so different from what came in his next film Naked! Proof of Leigh’s diversity in filmmaking). It is about a middle/lower middle class family living in a row house in London. Dad Andy (Jim Broadbent) is a chef at a restaurant, working long hours for meager pay, and has always wanted to work for himself. He gets his chance when he buys a food truck, though it has more rust than metal on it at the time. His wife Wendy (Alison Steadman) playfully teases him about his dreams, but you can tell she loves him dearly and doesn’t mind indulging his fantasies. Two adult twin girls live with the couple, Natalie (Claire Skinner) and Nicola (Jane Horrocks). Natalie is a go-getter and has a full time job as a plumber, and her parents are rightfully proud that she’s a hard worker. Nicola hasn’t found her niche yet. She’s suffering from an eating disorder (bulimia) and depression, and hides behind a facade of biting sarcasm towards her family and others. Like a lot of families, they joke and prod at each other, but it is a loving family, and the film is all about the interactions that go on between them. Some of the daily interactions include Nicola’s secret boyfriend who visits during the day when no one is around (a young David Thewlis), and a friend of the family who opens a high end restaurant without any real idea of how to run it (the always funny Timothy Spall). Leigh knows how to get the very best out of all the actors on screen, and there are more moving and touching moments than you can count, and without feeling heavy handed; the director lets us get to know them, and then gives us glimpses at what makes them tick, and it all develops naturally. ★★★★½

Naked stars David Thewlis (in his breakout role) as Johnny, a drifter wandering the seedy underbelly of London over a couple nights in the early 90s. He’s highly intellectual but also completely terrible as a human being. In fact, the film opens with him raping a woman, stealing a car, and then fleeing to London. So a great family picture! Once there, Johnny goes to see Louise, an ex-girlfriend. She’s not home, but her roommate Sophie is. Johnny spends the day flirting and later sleeping with Sophie, and while she gets attached to him quick as a flash, ol’ Johnny isn’t looking for any attachments, and leaves after flaunting his day in front of Louise when she gets home. Johnny then roams around town, encountering various others in the night life of London. Everywhere he goes, he shows off his superior intellect in debates about the meaning of life and the future of mankind, but he makes sure to leave people feeling worse off than when he met them. He gets his just desserts when he gets jumped by a gang, and he hobbles back to Louise’s and Sophie’s. Interspersed throughout the film are scenes of a rich 20-something named Sebastion, who also treats people like shit, but he gets away with it due to his money and societal standing. When Johnny gets back to the place, Sebastian is there, having spent the day raping Sophie. Turns out he’s the landlord of the building, and he’s just getting more of want he wants. There are moments here and there when we see a glimpse of a kinder, gentler Johnny, and we want that part of him to come out, but you have to watch to the end to see if it does. It’s a stark and sometimes painful film to watch, but I’ll give it one thing, it grabs your attention and holds it until the end. Leigh definitely has a way of showing the complete human being, and Thewlis shows every angle and view of Johnny that a person can have. Not an easy movie to watch, but a good one. ★★★½

Every family has skeletons in their closet, things that happen and are later buried, not even discussed a single generation later. One such family is examined to an emotional masterpiece in 1996’s Secrets & Lies. Hortense is a mid-20’s black woman seeking her biological mother. Her adopted parents are both dead, and she’s looking more out of curiosity than anything else. What she finds surprises her, because her birth mother is white. Cynthia gave up Hortense as a teenager, and went on to have another daughter, Roxanne, a couple years later, but never had any long-term men in her life. Roxanne is turning 21 when Hortense finds the family, and at first, Cynthia and Hortense keep the secret to themselves. Also in the picture is Cynthia’s younger brother Maurice, whose wife Monica does not get along with Cynthia at all. Yes, it’s melodrama, but it is very good melodrama, with supremely good acting all around, and some soft humor that manages to make you smile once in awhile too. A film like this, it is easy to see how even very important events can be smoothed over and buried, due to shame or fear, and it’s easy for them to be forgotten (or nearly so) just a couple decades later. Makes you wonder what life events our parents and grandparents went through, of which we have no idea. Very emotional finale, where the viewer hopes for a happy ending for everyone. ★★★★

Unfortunately I found Topsy-Turvy to be almost a complete bore, and that’s coming from someone who loves musicals and even the occasional opera. It follows the famous 19th century team of Gilbert and Sullivan. In the film, they’ve already had many successes, including The Pirates of Penzance, but their latest, Princess Ida, is flopping in London. The librettist, W.S. Gilbert, loves stories full of magic, but composer Arthur Sullivan is tired of the “fluff” and wants to write more serious music again. Under pressure from the theater to release a new hit, Gilbert comes out with yet another fantastical piece involving a magical potion, but Sullivan refuses to write music for it. Fate seems to inspire Gilbert in a new direction, which will ultimately lead the duo to one of their greatest successes, The Mikado. The one thing going for the film is it is a fascinating look “behind the curtain” at the creative process involved in putting together the production as well as scenes backstage during performances, interactions between the various actors and performers and whatnot. Director Leigh let the actors sing their own parts, and there are many songs shown in their entirety in this (rather long) musical drama; you can tell that they aren’t trained singers, but that didn’t bother me too much. What bothered me more was the long attention given to rehearsals and prepping and lead-up, as there’s such a thing as too much information. I actually enjoyed the performances when they came (“Three little maids from school are we!”). The sets and costumes are top-notch for the era, and the film did win Oscars for costume design and makeup, but as a movie, it is awfully dry and rather meh. ★½