Mike Leigh has gone too far with this one. This style of filmmaking has gone past its sell-by-date. I am sorry, but people just do not live like that any more. That level of poverty is not consistent with a family of three wage earners. What would Safeway have to say !
Yes, you can find poor accommodation in South London (although this film did stretch it to the extreme); yes, you can find unhealthy people; yes, you can find miserable people. But.... would you ever find a micro-community like this where everyone is so screwed up and hopelessly wretched? These people would have committed suicide years ago. They did not even have any redeeming qualities and not one ounce of humour.
Not only did this film bore me, it made me angry. I moved to Australia from SE England a few months ago. I watched this film surrounded by my new countrymen. I felt like standing up in the cinema and shouting 'Don't believe it, nowhere in England is this depressing'.
OK, so there is nothing wrong with a film about 'real' characters no matter how dark they are. However, these characters are not real, they are made up stereotypes. This film is an insult to the type of society that Leigh thinks he is portraying.
Yes, you can find poor accommodation in South London (although this film did stretch it to the extreme); yes, you can find unhealthy people; yes, you can find miserable people. But.... would you ever find a micro-community like this where everyone is so screwed up and hopelessly wretched? These people would have committed suicide years ago. They did not even have any redeeming qualities and not one ounce of humour.
Not only did this film bore me, it made me angry. I moved to Australia from SE England a few months ago. I watched this film surrounded by my new countrymen. I felt like standing up in the cinema and shouting 'Don't believe it, nowhere in England is this depressing'.
OK, so there is nothing wrong with a film about 'real' characters no matter how dark they are. However, these characters are not real, they are made up stereotypes. This film is an insult to the type of society that Leigh thinks he is portraying.