Methinks Mike Leigh is a like minded traveller with Henry Thoreau.
Leigh’s latest film, HARD TRUTHS, explores the idea that the mass of humanity lead lives of quiet desperation and that what may be called resignation is confirmed desperation.
But Leigh leavens the reckless resignedness with a balance of delight, a relief from the grief that threatens to overwhelm, and through will and wisdom, hard truths can be softened. The mass of humanity, or at least half, make the most of it, accentuate the positive.
HARD TRUTHS focus on two sisters, Pansy and Chantelle, unalike in temperament, harmony and happiness.
Pansy is a housewife. She is aggressive, paranoid, moody, deeply unhappy and a hypochondriac. She lives with her long-suffering husband Curtley, a successful plumber, and their introspective son Moses, who is unemployed and in his early twenties. He spends his time either in his bedroom or going for long walks, and Pansy thinks he is wasting his life.
Chantelle runs a thriving hairdressing salon. She enjoys life. She is a single mum, and lives with her daughters Kayla, who works in product development for a cosmetics company, and Aleisha, who is an articled clerk. Their relationship is warm and loving, and they enjoy a laugh.
The two leads are chalk and cheese perfection, Marianne Jean-Baptiste flinty as Pansy, Michelle Austin charming as Chantelle.
Pansy has a massive emotional chip on her shoulder, placed there by her relationship with her mother. It has manifested into an Atlas sized boulder of punishing anger and resentment. From this desperate self eating state, there seems no escape, no consolation, the alienation of spouse and sibling a self fulfilling fait accompli.
But it is a characteristic of wisdom to temper desperate things, and Mike Leigh tempers what could have been a desperate, despairing and depressing film with positive charges of humour, humanity, honesty and hope.
