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Amazon.co.uk Review
Meantime, made in 1983, was only Mike Leigh's second film to reach the big screen, though by now he was far from a novice director. Yet 10 years after his first movie, Bleak Moments (1971), he couldn't get funding for a single cinematic feature and was obliged to make films for television. Meantime, first shown on Channel 4, was given a limited theatrical release, heralding his eventual return to the cinema. The title is a double-edged pun. It suggests the waiting-around no-time-in-particular that the characters inhabit, but it's also Leigh's barbed comment on the mean-spirited politics of the Thatcher era, when millions of people were tossed on the scrapheap of unemployment.
Leigh has sometimes been accused of caricaturing and being condescending to his characters, but Meantime is notable for wry compassion in its portrayal of a bunch of no-hopers stuck in their East End limbo. Not a lot happens. Mark (Phil Daniels) and his retarded brother Colin (Tim Roth) hang about the streets and pubs, banter with their skinhead mate Coxy (Gary Oldman), half-heartedly chat up local girls, bicker with their parents. Their aunt Barbara--who bettered herself and moved to the relative poshness of Chigwell--offers Colin a job helping her decorate, but he backs out of it. Nobody's going anywhere much. But the view's not totally forlorn. Leigh leaves us with a brief, unexpected moment of warmth and solidarity between the two brothers.
On the DVD: It's paltry stuff. A so-called "trailer" proves to be a plug for other DVD releases in the same series. Otherwise it's just a scene menu, and English subtitles for the hard of hearing. The early 80s TV-quality images are badly shown up by the DVD's visual acuity. --Philip Kemp
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Me and my best mate at school used to watch this film every lunchtime, and by 1985 we had the dialogue "auswendig". But this film is so much more than dialogue - the cast and sets are pitch perfect, so much so that you can virtually smell them. If you didn't live through Thatchers's England, well, you don't need to, for you now have "Meantime", a film as complex, funny, banal, shallow and profound as life itself. A gift from heaven compared to most films I have seen in the last few years !!
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Forget "Abigail's Party", "Secrets & Lies", "Nuts In May"...This is the finest work by Mike Leigh. No pretentious moralising, just excellent gritty drama. I think half of the success of this film stems from the fact that all of the characters are so recognisable, each one so well drawn and not a weak performance in the entire cast...On the contrary, every actor is superb. Who could imagine the abrasive, dowdy Mavis become Ma Larkin 10 years later? Or how about a brilliant early appearance from Tim Roth as the simple younger brother to Phil Daniels who also produces an excellent performance.We see Gary Oldman wonderfully unhinged and sadistic as the skinhead Coxy and Alfred Molina is the conservative two-timing exec husband to Marion Bailey...spot on as Aunty Barbara. I'm sure all of us have an Aunty Barbara. "Meantime" is a rough and gritty portrait of a dysfunctional council estate family with very little hope for the future, yet the film refuses to wear down the viewer simply by being very funny. Films don't get much better than this.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
I happened upon this film by chance, and being a big Mike Leigh fan for many years (although not knowing this particular work of his) decided to give it a go and buy it. How glad I am that I did. Utter realism and a clutch of hugely talented future stars made this film such a wonderful commentary on the hopelessness for so many in Thatcher's Britain. Tim Roth steals the show as the inimitably brilliant Colin Pollock (even the name conjures up an image of backwardness) - and if you ever need proof of the raw talents of a great British actor, watch this film back-to-back with Made in Britain. Meantime deserves, even today, its own huge following.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Tim Roth is sensational...
Mike Leigh's bleak and depressing look at a family struggling with high unemployment, poverty and a poor standard of social housing and the tensions caused by them in the early... Read more
Published 5 months ago by BPR
One Of Leigh's Best
Mike Leigh's 1984 film Meantime was originally made for TV (one of the first films made for Channel 4, in fact) as Leigh was at the time unable to secure a theatrical release. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Keith M
Mike Leigh's Very Best Film
The raw, hard-hitting Meantime (1983), exploring strong social and political issues of the day (mainly the high unemployment level), evokes the deep working-class despair of... Read more
Published on 23 April 2010 by Ian Phillips
My all-time favourite film! What a MASTERPIECE!!!!
I believe it was only shown twice on TV in 83/84 and not released on VHS (remember that) until an agonising 10 years later! Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2009 by Theo
Genius
If I had to give away all my DVD's and keep only one, it would have to be Meantime.
The acting is beyond excellent....these people ARE the characters. Read more
The acting is beyond excellent....these people ARE the characters. Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2009 by Wizteria
Meantime
Mike Leigh is,in my opinion,the best British
writer/director there is.
He makes most of the American directors appear
puerile. Read more
writer/director there is.
He makes most of the American directors appear
puerile. Read more
Published on 30 July 2009 by Mr. A. L. Marney
A silk purse from a sow's ear
Nothing happens in this film. Everything happens in this film. Every viewer will have their own opinion on this, but this one thinks it a largely unsung masterpiece. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2007 by A reader
What a load of Rubbish!!!
I am sorry but this film is so boring and overhyped. Before watching this film I read all the reviews and was up for a classic movie, unfortunately I was very let down. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2006 by N. P. Mitchell
Mindblowing and brilliant
I can't exaggerate how good this film is. If you've ever been on the rock'n'roll this is a strong bitter taste that reminds you of (very) wasted days. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2003
simply a touching movie
One of the first English movie I saw, me being a foreigner. An accurate portrait of a family. So touching, there is solidarity behind these harsh dialogues. So funny. Read more
Published on 29 May 2001
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