Thankfully, there's enough humor to balance out the heavy subject matter. Brenda Blethyn is annoyingly hysterical, but at the same time she's still immensely watchable. One of Leigh's best.

Incredibly strong acting, touching and real -- with some great twists.

Very solid argument about such an complex theme. Leigh knows really well how to use his directing trademarks to make a point.

27 Haziran 08 & aile iliskilerini anlatan, diyologlarin basarisi ve muzik kullanimi ile hafizama kazinmis olan, unutulmasi guc bir film.Brenda Blethyn'in oyunculugu filmi tasimakta.

Devastating and intense family drama in working-class Britain, with characters constantly confronted with things outside their experience. The ways they react are the meat of the film.

Holy shit, awkwardness galore! It's truly amazing to watch as these various lives cross paths, headed for the inevitable clash as it slowly becomes clear how all the stories fit together. The acting is superb and the direction has some inspired moments that really capture the human aspects of these situations. A wonderful ending as well, there's little to criticize beyond the emotional toll it can take to watch it, but even that is deftly tempered by some lighter moments.

Looks so fresh and has cutting lucid moments, but I'd say it's less than an improvement on Life Is Sweet. i.e. it's still brilliant, anyway.

Could have been easily named "Teary and Weary"

Superb. The performances are great, Blethyn and Spall being the cream of the crop. Leigh's preproduction method ensures maximum believability. Only nitpick would be an ending that seemed maybe a little too clean for real life, especially for these characters.

Brenda Blethyn was simply perfect, great film.

It's good but I didn't really connect with it like I'd hoped.

Good film.

I liked this a lot. It felt very realistic, which was good, even if I found it painful at times. Some of the characters are so awful, I found it a little hard to watch. The performances are great all around though, with Brenda Blethyn giving a particularly brilliant one. Some of the dialogue wasn’t so good. I think it might have actually been better as a mini-series, as I felt there were aspects that weren’t as explored as they could have been.