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DVD Description
Mike Leigh's compassionate comedy about families, food, burger bars, restaurants, chocolate, sex, anorexia, plumbing, hope, love and much else, including spoons. Savour Timothy Spall's (All or Nothing, Secrets & Lies) hilarious manic restaurateur with his ridiculous recipes, Alison Steadman (Fat Friends, Abigail's Party) and Jim Broadbent (Iris, Topsy-Turvy) as the loving Wendy and Andy, and Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks as their very different twin daughters. Also stars Stephen Rea.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
'Life is sweet/bittersweet...' Maria Mckee wrote the great title song of her brilliant solo album after seeing this film, and this is a film full of sweet moments that will also leave you feeling hollowed out by the end. Alison Steadman is the irrepressibly optimistic matriach of an ordinary lower middle class family. Husband Jim Broadbent has a million plans and schemes to escape his job, none of which will come to fruition. Jane Horrocks is the unhappy bulemic daughter whose nervy misery is contrasted with the sensible thoughtfulness of her twin played by Clare Skinner. David Thewlis is her the cruel boyfriend who grows fed up of licking chocolate spread from Jane Horrocks breasts (is he mad?) Timothy Spall turns in a marvellous performance as the deluded, predatory and pathetic would-be restauranter and the film works as a beautifully constructed ensemble piece about the necessity of dreams and the power of family bonds. I often cry at films - I cried at three separate moments in thsi one. Required viewing for all aspiring British film-makers. And, yes that means you Richard Curtis - you could learn a thing or three from this...
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Life is Sweet was the first Leigh film I saw, about 6 years ago. I recently settled to reacquaint myself with Leigh's regular team of character actors. I've seen all his films subsequently and have a feel of his breadth of work, from tragicomedy to drama.
As such, I found the characters' mannerisms and foibles to be grating and really quite irritating, as if they'd been overacted, or misjudged. At least, at first.
Then, as with any family that open their front door to you and until you see and hear how they click and survive as a family unit, you really do wonder what you've let yourself in for.
So, having 'moved in', within 15 minutes I was warming to them. Ten more and I felt I knew them and was totally immersed in their humour and lives. I'm still surprised as to how political and social statements from the late '80's (as well as a trip down memory lane; rusty Ford Escorts and shell suits) manifest themselves through the cast. Bit like the kitchen sink dramas of the '60's but without the grainy black & white, the grime and grouchy men hitting womenfolk. Leigh's canvas is much wider and behind everyday doors in everyday streets lie the often dismissed emotional and confused pains of modern life. Ordinary people whose problems seem to be teetering on the edge and to them, unique.
The acting in those more poignant scenes is, as I sometimes describe, natural, as is. As you'd expect a real person to do.
With some broad humour, wit and a brisk pace this is still a sparkling snapshot of British semi-suburbia twenty years ago. Nothing too shocking or gratuitous. Not the red-hot, pure grit of hard unemployment of Shane Meadows but the sort of folk we know about, or of, who work alongside us, holding the country together. Somehow.
As such, I found the characters' mannerisms and foibles to be grating and really quite irritating, as if they'd been overacted, or misjudged. At least, at first.
Then, as with any family that open their front door to you and until you see and hear how they click and survive as a family unit, you really do wonder what you've let yourself in for.
So, having 'moved in', within 15 minutes I was warming to them. Ten more and I felt I knew them and was totally immersed in their humour and lives. I'm still surprised as to how political and social statements from the late '80's (as well as a trip down memory lane; rusty Ford Escorts and shell suits) manifest themselves through the cast. Bit like the kitchen sink dramas of the '60's but without the grainy black & white, the grime and grouchy men hitting womenfolk. Leigh's canvas is much wider and behind everyday doors in everyday streets lie the often dismissed emotional and confused pains of modern life. Ordinary people whose problems seem to be teetering on the edge and to them, unique.
The acting in those more poignant scenes is, as I sometimes describe, natural, as is. As you'd expect a real person to do.
With some broad humour, wit and a brisk pace this is still a sparkling snapshot of British semi-suburbia twenty years ago. Nothing too shocking or gratuitous. Not the red-hot, pure grit of hard unemployment of Shane Meadows but the sort of folk we know about, or of, who work alongside us, holding the country together. Somehow.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
That's what this film is. I say small only because the whole subject is small - a small suburban family's daily existence. But from the moment they open their front door to us, we are reminded how extraordinary normal everyday families can be. The tone is bitingly satirical as it sends up some of the odder urban steroetypes of modern times. Without giving away these superb characters, Spall and Horrocks are hysterical and worryingly good in their roles. The Horrocks character in particular is a gem and is the real centrepiece around which this brilliantly crafted film rotates. I haven't seen a sharper or more satirical movie about British family life than this. Leigh at his best.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
didnt enjoy it at all
very strange film, excellent acting as others have said, with some big name actors, but odd story line and some quite strange scenes. Didnt enjoy it at all.
Published 7 months ago by A. L. Mcleod
"What do you know about paranoia?"
As you expect with a Mike Leigh film, instead of having a definite story you instead get a section of life opened up for us to view. Read more
Published 22 months ago by GeekZilla
Masterclass
They say that some of the best films can be about real life if so this would win the Oscar for me and beyond. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. James Whitby
A work of genious
Really a work of genious. Mike Leigh and his amazing cast find laughter in the face of despair, find the pain underneath the mundane ordinariness of everyday life, find hope even... Read more
Published on 2 April 2010 by Julian H
What a great DVD
Life is Sweet is a real classic - one that everyone should put on their list of must see films.
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by Peter V. Hasler
Poor
Alison Steadman is wonderful, as ever. Jim Broadbent, ditto. I usually like Timothy Spall and Jane Horrocks, but here they are both unbelievably terrible. Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2009 by H17
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