Grown-Ups

my neighbors have a cat who's decided he lives here. he's learned to knock on the front door, and if that doesn't work he gazes through the window pitifully. once inside, he's a relentless attention whore, headbutting and walking up and down your lap and raising his paw pleadingly like oliver twist begging for food. he's the friendliest cat in the universe and i love him to bits but more than 20 minutes and he drives me insane. he and leigh have evidently met, and blethyn plays him perfectly.

The usual humorous discomfort from Leigh in his working class context. It's text-heavy and focuses heavily on the main actors - the problem is that these elements aren't exactly up to his best. The leads are the stand-out.

Another familiar Mike Leigh film with the usual emotional trajectory, yet this didn't stop this grounded realist film soar into crazy dramatic heights in its climax. Many usual Leigh staples are present here, particularly the well-meaning yet aggravating single character infringing on the fed-up married couple, which is done as brilliantly here as it was in Another Year. The intense drama is peppered with comedic moments, but they hardly make this world seem any less hopeless.

Comparing Gloria from this film with a similar (even played by the same actress) character Cynthia in Leigh's later film Secrets & Lies shows this film's major fault: with Cynthia Leigh's viewpoint is compassionate wanting to help us understand her and the emotions she's going through, whereas Leigh presents Gloria as some sort of whining, annoying banshee who is only on screen to cause drama and for us to laugh at. I wasn't laughing.

Mild early effort from Leigh. Not as uncompromisingly dramatic or comedic as he will later become so instead of filling me with both awe and discomfort, a fascinating combination unique to his style (see Naked, Secrets & Lies), I just got stuck with the discomfort. Few funny moments here and there keep it from becoming a total loss though.