Fantastic!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The first question is: is the title ironic or sincere? I think for Leigh there's not an ironic bone in his body, and this is despite (or maybe because?) of the fact that his film, like many of his others, are people who may be pleasant and joyful and get by just fine but others are probably, maybe, definitely, messed up. But he loves all of the people in the worlds he creates - and, as has been reported to death, how his process is one where he makes it totally inclusive with the actors as they develop characters and the scenarios over a year or so - and it's usually a matter of... how does this person realize the other needs or wants something, desperately, simply? Life is Sweet is a wonderful example of the kind of film Mike Leigh is usually associated with making, and is deeper and (in a good way) more difficult emotionally than you might expect on first glance.The family includes Wendy, the mother (Steadman), father Andy (Broadbent), and twin daughters Natalie and Nicola (Skinner and Harrocks respectively). They seem to be a fairly conventional (lower) middle class family in a town in England, where Andy has some big ideas for a food truck he buys sort of on a whim from slightly-shady, so-dated-in-a-windbreaker Stephen Rea (so unlike how I've seen him in other parts, which is great), and Wendy, who sometimes works with kids but also tries to help friend(?) of the family Aubrey (Timothy Spall in a delightfully daffy, sometimes angry and occasionally drunk performance unlike any I've seen before) who tries to open his own restaurant, is the kind of person you or I know who laughs at a lot of things. Sometimes, whether intentional or unintentional, that includes the daughter Nicola who is, really, the depressed and tortured heart of the film.Oh, she might bring some of it on herself, one might say, seeing as she's an anorexic/bulimic girl (only the sister seems to know she does this, hearing her vomit in her bedroom next over, or at least is the only one who asks), and from the start she comes off as, to put it lightly, a basket case. But Leigh not once, not ever, does he judge her as a filmmaker - some of the other characters might, but that's another matter, and one that creates some mild comic but also dramatic tension in some scenes - as she comes off as pushy and antagonistic, but also that she is so young and mixed up in a lot of ways, not the least sexually (her scenes with Thewlis as her sort- of-boyfriend have a sharp charge of energy between them, how he's with her and why he puts up with her, or why she allows him to say the things he does, is fascinating). And Harrocks gives it her all, and I'm sure that delighted Leigh to see what lengths she as well as Spall and, in their own way, Broadbent and Steadman went in their performances. The main problem that the characters face here, or at least the mother does as someone who has emotional intelligence but not always the words to communicate well, is how to speak how they're actually feeling. It's not just a British thing either, it's universal for parents to not always know what to say to their children, if they're not as functional as they're expected or a bit "unusual." But it's more than that too; throughout the film we're seeing people trying to have what they want, whether it's the father with his food truck (it's a fixer-upper, and some day he'll do it, maybe), or Aubrey with his restaurant that (on the first night, but we may think it'll be this way for a while) no one comes in, or some others. The focus is small and the character moments are all intimate in one way or another, and it eventually does build to a very dramatic moment between mother and daughter. What's remarkable is that it's not the kind of ending that might come in a lessor (maybe American?) movie where things end neat and tidy; there's the sense that there is still a *lot* of work to be done between these characters, and this family, and with Nicola and her uncertainty about herself (whether that involves therapy who can say), but it's really about... start trying, and work from there. One last thing - Dick Pope was cinematographer on this. Seeing this just a week after seeing Baby Driver again... this man was versatile as all get out. What an amazing eye and gift with a camera; and here it's subtle because it's so character driven, but every moment has motivation, every time he and Leigh stay on a character or two characters it matters.

Life is Sweet is a deeply moving, tough slice-of-life served on the grandiose platter that is cinema. It's a rich little film centered around an incredibly dysfunctional working class family just north of London, residing in a congested yet heavily-decorated home. The family is made up of hard-working and ambitious father Andy (Jim Broadbent), playful and often whiny mother Wendy (Alison Steadman), determined and introverted adolescent Natalie (Claire Skinner), and her sarcastic often patronizing twin Nicola (Jane Horrocks).Writer/director Mike Leigh follows this dysfunctional bunch, rarely orchestrating a frame that isn't fixated on one of the family members. Through the limitless realms of conversational intimacy and quietly effective, filmic poetry, he allows his characters to talk openly and frequently rather than handing them a contrived plot to work off of. Leigh's style is an incredible one. He takes his actors, provides them with an outline for specific scenes, and allows them to improvise and bounce ideas of one another so as to squeeze all the possibilities out of a certain scene and setting. When Leigh and his tight- knit band of actors are ready, shooting will commence.Through this tactic, Leigh allows for a rare and unfortunately underrated style of intimacy to prevail. The first fifteen minutes of Life is Sweet provided me with an unparalleled depiction of rapid-fire conversation that I have gone far too long without seeing. This style comes from everyone in the family, who respond just quick and spontaneous enough for realism to triumph over drivel and just naturalistic enough to sound authentic and as if they're making the material up on the dime (which they relatively did). The gifted improvisationist on hand here is Horrocks, playing a deeply- troubled girl who doesn't know what she wants or what direction she is going in life and her only vice is to attack her family members and acquaintances in a demonizing, mean-spirited way. However, this character is not contemptible, at least to us, as we see her insecurity and burdened attitude from a human standpoint rather than one where our response almost seems to giggle and mimic her behavior. To combat her family's conventional sense of behavior and the world around her, Horrocks' Nicola uses buzzwords and names she willfully takes out of context. "Fascist!," she screams at her mother after she disapproves of her daughter's actions. One can only admire her cute little resistance and opposition to authority for what it is. Her defense mechanism is taking everything, regardless of how genial and well-meaning it is, and using it as an insult or a demeaning remark from somebody ostensibly in an higher position than she is. Despite this, her character has the ability to potentially relate to other members of the audience probably more-so than any other character in this film (and they all can be pretty damn relatable).A subplot involves a roly-poly, pudgy man named Aubrey (Timothy Spall), a good friend of this dysfunctional family who plans on opening a restaurant downtown, serving unique and somewhat- daring cuisines. Spall plays a character fit for a farce and, at first, seems to be Leigh's attempt to steer this project away from heights too depressing and offputting. However, Leigh finds ways to get this character to fit in perfectly with this dark and often bleak material, offering a slapstick force to the story that isn't too overbearing or nauseating and tiresome. Leigh writes a difficult character effectively and Spall musters up an ample amount of energy and drive to play the character beautifully. The cinematography by Dick Pope (who would later go on to do Oscar winning cinematographical work in The Illusionist along with similar work in Richard Linklater's Bernie) is also a sight for sore eyes here, combining an array of soft colors with the tenderness of the London atmosphere. Brought into wonderful conjunction with Leigh's astute framing - which occasionally turns daring by narrowing itself in setting to small rooms and through open doorways - the appearance of the film is comparable to the style of independent auteur Wes Anderson. It's touching and a beautiful inclusion to a well-told story.Ultimately, Life is Sweet is character-heavy and that's its best attribute. Because of its deep-rooted investments in six very intriguing people, it allows its themes and story to hit notes of actual working class life. These same characters could be thrown in a belittling film that either relies too heavily on self- referential trite or nonsensical antics, but instead, sees them as easily-breakable souls through a lens of considerable warmness. I loved Life is Sweet almost as much as my own life - and without the context of this review, that line would seem like a hopeless line of overpraise.NOTE: Two important sidenotes I felt would feel awkward included in my review; one, Life is Sweet is available on DVD and Blu-Ray through The Criterion Collection, a too- often overlooked film- distribution company outside of the film community that is committed to releasing American film works of considerable quality and significance along with exceptional films of the world. They've released yet another masterful film that may've gone unseen had they not exist.The other note I have is a question to viewers about Wendy, the mother of the picture. Throughout the film, I noticed her hair turn gray, specifically during the scene when her and Nicola have a meaningful heart-to-heart. I'm curious - is her hair dyed for effect or a result or breakneck improvisation?Starring: Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Stephen Rea, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis, and Moya Brady. Directed by: Mike Leigh.

In most ways, this is your typical Mike Leigh movie. It's very nice and charming and has great characters. It doesn't really go anywhere, but it's extremely enjoyable all the same. This one has a performance, though, that, for me, put it a cut above his usual product. Jane Horrocks as a depressed, bundle-of-nerves bulimic just absolutely blew me away. In a lot of ways, it's capital A acting, but, God, you can feel such a deep vein of hurt under the more obvious mannerisms. The story here involves a lower middle class family, mother Alison Steadman and father Jim Broadbent and daughters Horrocks and Claire Skinner. Broadbent is a chef but wants to run his own food truck. Their friend Timothy Spall opens a new French restaurant and Steadman agrees to waitress for him. It turns out to be a total disaster. Stephen Rea and David Thewlis (who kills in a very small part; it would win him the lead in Leigh's follow-up, Naked) co-star. Horrocks brought me to tears. I couldn't stop crying for like a half hour afterward, so deeply had she gotten to me.

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.