Director: Mike Leigh

Stars: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michelle Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Jonathan Livingstone

Reuniting with Mike Leigh nearly three decades after her star-making turn in ‘Secrets and Lies’ Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivers a barnstorming performance as a disappointed and bitter woman raging at the world in this complex and empathetic character study. For Jean-Baptiste’s Patsy, life is a series of enraging slights and disappointments, causing her to lash out at her quiet husband Curtley (Webber); her overweight twenty-two-year-old son Moses (Barrett); as well as shop assistants, doctors and anyone else who crosses her path. In stark contrast, her sister Chantelle (Austin), a hairdresser and single mother to two happy grown daughters, is positive and upbeat, as well as heroically devoted to her older sister. As Mother’s Day approaches, Chantelle insists that Patsy accompany her to their mother’s grave to lay some flowers, followed by lunch at Chantelle’s house. There, matters come to a head. Following period pieces ‘Peterloo’ and ‘Mr Turner’, Leigh seems energised on his return to contemporary, more intimate family drama, with the film sporting a brisk and economical ninety-six-minute running time – it’s not exactly laser-focused, but it feels purposeful in its plea for tolerance and compassion. It’s also the director’s funniest for some time. Patsy’s putdowns as delivered by Jean-Baptiste, are cruel but frequently very amusing and almost poetic in their descriptive power. Jean-Baptiste is extraordinary, her finely modulated performance effectively conveying the bruised and vulnerable woman beneath Patsy’s hurricane rages.

David Willoughby

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