12: Mike Leigh & Stereotypes
Kathleen Norris on THE MIKE LEIGH UPLIFT: TWO FILMS
I learned about the emotional impact of movies when I was ten, and saw Old Yeller not long after my dog died. I didn’t yet know the word for the effect my copious weeping was having on me — catharsis — but I knew my sadness was relieved by what I’d observed on screen. I’ve often wept at movies in the intervening years but was in my mid-fifties before a film had such an effect on me again. When I saw the director Mike Leigh’s All Or Nothing (above) the year after my husband died I was shaken to the core. The wife in that film, portrayed by Lesley Manville in a subtle and astonishing performance, forced me to recognize aspects of my personality that I prefer not to look at. I wept. And it was cathartic.
All Or Nothing portrays three working-class families in London who live in drab public housing. One has a severely alcoholic mother, a hapless father, and a promiscuous teenaged daughter. Another consists of a single mother and a daughter repeating history by becoming pregnant by an abusive boyfriend who’s unwilling to accept the responsibilities of fatherhood. The film is anchored by the Bassetts: Phil (Timothy Spall) a taxi driver, his wife Penny (Manville), a supermarket clerk, and their two lumpish children. Their daughter Rachel is a janitor in a nursing home; their son Rory is unemployed, an angry, mean-spirited young man. The Barretts barely speak to each other, except with curses, painful insults, and inconsequential chatter.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Soul Telegram: Movies & Meaning to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.