Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Ani Nelson, Sophia Brown, Jonathan Livingstone, Samantha Spiro
Plot: Pansy Deacon is a mother and wife in modern London and lives her life on a hair-trigger. She actively seeks out people and things to be angry at, making no secret of her feelings and recounting her grievances to her family over dinner each evening.
Review: It was an odd double feature yesterday, taking in the latest Mike Leigh kitchen-sink drama tackling every day problems with emotionally complex characters immediately before the sugar rush of the latest over-the-top Marvel offering where a man with wings found an angry red giant. Something of a jarring contrast, representing far ends of the mainstream cinematic spectrum.
Like much of Leigh’s filmography, Hard Truths puts the focus on a down to Earth, grounded environment with a great deal of effort used to make the world feel real and familiar. The people inhabiting it are deeply complex characters whose subtleties and nuances are built through extensive periods of rehearsal and improv work. It has been noted by the director that some of the most defining events and features of his characters do not make it on to the screen, but rather they inform how they act in the story. In this case, the spotlight is on Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the equally frustrating sympathetic Pansy Deacon.
We follow Pansy and those in her orbit during a brief period of time in her life, culminating with a Mother’s Day family gathering that bring some of her issues to a head. Pansy wakes with a start every morning and immediately begins looking for things to be angry at. Whether its the pigeons in her yard, her (possibly on the spectrum) son Moses (Barrett), her hard-working husband Curtley (Webber), her sister Chantelle (Austin) and anyone else unfortunately to cross her path. She’ll criticise her neighbours for how they dress their children, service workers for ‘making a face’ or offering her help, even bystanders unfortunate enough to be in her vicinity. It doesn’t take long to realise that there is no right answer with Pansy – she’ll attack you for being to friendly or not friendly enough irregardless of your efforts. Trying to placate her will only extend your drubbing, with no-one leaving the encounter happy – especially not Pansy.
While Chantelle tries to show her sister patience and will even challenge her on her accusations, we get the impression that those in her household have long been beaten into submission by the barrage of criticisms and complaints. An early dinner scene shows Curtley and Moses sitting in silence, their faces impassive while Pansy delivers a non-stop litany of all the things that bothered her that day. Moses is often the subject of complaints having not gotten a job despite his age, but it’s clear that the poor lad has been pushed down and criticised for so long that there’s no esteem left for him to work with. He’ll often head out for lonely walks through the neighbourhood just for the quiet.
It isn’t the most pleasant situation to be spending your viewing time, but there’s something fascinating about her. You find yourself in watching in trepidation as Pansy goes shopping for a sofa, visits a dentist or pays for groceries waiting to see what imagined slight she’s going to concoct and how people are going to respond to her. It also becomes clear that she’s a deeply unwell woman, having twisted her world view to tightly that she can’t bring herself to be happy about anything. As the movie goes on and we see more of her relationship with her sister and their deceased mother, and how difficult it will be for her to find any way reconcile her feelings with reality without driving everyone away.
On paper, it’s a simple film driven by the characters, performances and dialogue. When you’ve got these elements working on such a high level you’re not going to be wanting for any other smoke and mirrors. It’s a powerful story told by film-makers and performers on immense talent. See it if you want top tier drama, just try not to get your back up at Pansy.
Rating: NINE out of TEN