Small, and Sweet and Superb

 The Beauty of the Banal

Life Is Sweet (1990) – A working-class London family tries to live their lives day to day.  Dad’s vivid imagination lets him survive a job he hates. Mom is the family optimist and their twin twenty-something daughters struggle with life in general.

Directed by Mike Leigh

Starring Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, David Thewlis

Why I Liked It – So much to love here.  A wonderful cast takes an everyday story and makes heartbreakingly funny and real.

So, here’s another movie that belongs in my beloved “Little Movie” category.   Like me, you’ve probably never heard of this movie.  Director Mike Leigh worked primarily in television, with only two other film credits before this one.  Working with a cast that mixes movie actors with some gifted and acclaimed television actors, Leigh creates a home that anyone can just sit down in comfortably.  Every character here, including the untrustworthy Patsy and the slightly weird Aubrey, is believable.  You know Patsy(Stephen Rea) is conning Andy (Broadbent), even if Andy doesn’t.  You know that Aubrey (Timothy Spall) is going to do something embarrassing.  Alison Steadman walks Wendy on the fine line between unquenchable optimism and caricature.  Meanwhile, Skinner and Horrocks are brilliant as the fraternal twin sisters whose lives are polar opposites.  With many wonderful performances to choose from, theirs are my favorites.  Nicola (Horrocks) doesn’t know what to do with herself, her thoughts, her emotions, or the family that annoys the hell out of her.  But she is in a desperate search for a place where she fits in.  Thewlis plays her older boyfriend/lover who understands the battle inside her and won’t let her give up on finding what is right.  In a role that commonly gets played as manipulative and narcissistic, he brings some pleasant nuance.  Meanwhile, Claire Skinner’s Natalie is calm, centered and orderly.  She sees the oddness of her family as well, but loves them and holds them together.

I had no expectations going into this one.  Which made the delight of this movie all the greater.  Like real-life, the stories meanders at times.  There’s no perfect Hollywood ending, but the movie ends in the perfect way for the story you’ve just seen.  Like its characters, the movie is sad, funny, and unpretentious.  A standout movie so far this year.

Rating – **** Recommended