18/21
Narrative
Legendary director Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate and often humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us. Reunited with Leigh for the first time since her multi-Oscar-nominated Secrets and Lies, the stunning Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a fear-ridden, grief-stricken woman prone to angry tirades against her husband, son and whoever crosses his path. Meanwhile, her quiet younger sister, played by Michele Austin (Another Year), is a single mother with a life as different from Pansy’s as their clashing temperaments, filled with shared warmth from her clients. salon and her daughters. This sprawling film from a master of drama takes us into the intensity of kinship, duty, and the most enduring human mystery: that even through lives of pain and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family.