In a Mike Leigh film ("Secrets and Lies," "Vera Drake") you not only get to know the characters, you start to feel like you're there with them. Sometimes you cringe for them, and wish you could interrupt or change the subject before they can do more damage. The lady behind me in the theater today couldn't stop herself from exclaiming or tut-tutting whenever someone would start to embarrass themselves in this latest superb work from the master of intimate storytelling. Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and husband Tom (Jim Broadbent) have reached their mid years happy and content with their lives and each other. Over the course of a year, as they work their rented garden plot and invite old friends over, we see that they may be the exception in their happiness. There's their unmarried son, Tom's old drinking buddy, Tom's taciturn brother, and above all, Gerri's co-worker of 20 years (Leslie Manville), whose single life seems to be going seriously off track. Much like Christian Bale in this season's "The Fighter," where Mark Walhberg is the rock and Bale the soaring aerialist, this is Leslie Manville's picture. It's her story that bounces off all the others, and her performance that will bring the accolades.
Rated PG-13. 129 minutes. Mike Leigh - Director / Writer, Georgina Lowe - Producer, Dick Pope - Cinematographer, Gary Yershon - Composer, Simon Beresford - Production Designer, Jon Gregory - Editor. Produced by Film4 and Focus Features. Distributed in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics.
Principal actors: Jim Broadbent, Leslie Manville, Ruth Sheen, Oliver Maltman.
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