Lack of good storyline.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

UK films are not easily available on this side of the pond, so this reviewer was first exposed to Jane Horrocks in this wonderfully perfect little film, only to later catch her in Little Voice.To say she was brilliant in both films is an understatement. The odd thing is that the second film seems to be well-known worldwide but this one seems to have been lost in the shuffle.The genius here is taking a small but rock-solid cast and capturing the attention of the audience almost from the first scene, with the daily trials and tribulations of a family trying to survive the vicissitudes of the outside world and the internal prison of their own making.The entire cast is great, the writing sharp, the direction polished. But the performance from Horrocks -- and that voice! -- will haunt you forever.

Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon.What to make of this film? It seems like the focus is on the twins and how different they are, while all the other characters are just background. Those two alone are quite striking, with one being a bulimic anarchist and the other an androgynous female who could be mistaken for a boy. What is to be made of them? The title of the film can only be seen s ironic, as no one here is truly happy. Director Mike Leigh covers some of the same ground as he does in "Secrets and Lies", in that he explores the working class world of England. Although I do not think it is an intentional this time around, it is still unavoidable.

Mike Leigh gold. This small-scale film might look like an average suburban character drama but it's far too rich. The rough trajectory sees the easy-going couple weathering a social whirl of oddballs trying and invariably failing to make something happen in their uneventful life. It's a soap opera without the melodrama.So to the performances which are all world-class, no joke. Easiest to overlook is the sublime Claire Skinner as Natalie, an apprentice plumber enduring nervous taunts about her sexuality. Off in the corner of the sitting room is the Gollum-like Nicola, an anti-Natalie who manages to find the comic light in an otherwise grotesquely sybaritic relationship with bulimia and David Thewlis. Timothy Spall creates the most pathetic individual I can remember in a film and consequently a man whose failure may turn out to be his greatest achievement. Bizarre but rewarding. 7/10

What can I say that previous fans of this movie have not said yet? I think that Mike Leigh is the best filmmaker working today. So, I won't bother rehashing the story line.I am convinced even thinking back to 1991, when it was released in the US, that Life is Sweet was the best of that year. That year was remembered more for, among others, Schindler's List, The Remains of the Day and The Piano. Alison Steadman seemingly insensitive lighthearted outlook on the world -laughing after nearly every sentence she or others utter, which incredibly I never tired of (an amazing feat), is all just her way of dealing with life. She sees it for what it is. The scene where she explains to her daughter Nicola how much of a sacrifice that she and her husband have made for the sake of their family is one of the most touching I have seen between a mother and daughter. I felt as though I was eaves-dropping while watching it. What a pleasure!