Two recent articles of mine drooled over the divine Sally Hawkins - we all have our indulgences. The first was a cautiously positive review of Made In Dagenham, the 'from the makers of Calender Girls' film on the 1968 strike over sexual discrimination. The director went for a glossy mainstream take on a bitterly faught dispute and it's lack of grit means its far less interesting or absorbing than it could have been. Nevertheless, it's sympathetic portrayal of working class communities, particularly on relationships between men and women, means it's watchable and enjoyable enough. And, of course, Hawkins shines brightly here and single handedly elevates it from sub-Richard Curtis fare.
One thing I didn't mention in the review was that, alongside the innacurate Socialist Workers Party namecheck, an outfit called the Revolutionary Communist Party was mentioned too. Was the writer referring to Ted Grant's outfit or did they seriously believe that the next step was being sold around Dagenham in 1968?
The second excuse to mention Sally Hawkins was in my review of Mike Leigh's Another Year whereby I mention how a lot of women found her performance in Happy-Go-Lucky infuriating. Unfortunately Hawkins is not in the excellent Another Year but Leigh regulars Ruth Sheen, Jim Broadbent and Lesley Manville are and they are on mesmirising form throughout - particularly Manville as the painfully tragic Mary. I'm in agreement with Peter Bradshaw's review in the Guardian that Leigh has moved on from the loopy, cartoonish dialogue of his earlier films and are an altogether better proposition.
Indeed, re-watching Life Is Sweet again this week felt like the work of an altogether different director. Sure, Horrock's Nicola has screamingly funny lines, but it's borderline Carry On in places and all the slapstick stuff with Spall's Aubrey is truly dreadful. Likewise, although the 1980s college scenes in Career Girls are great and, again, some genuinely funny lines, it's still a very slight and hesitant film - a long way away from the startling power of his earlier TV films like Mean Time and, of course, Abigail's Party. Twenty years on, he's now making some of the best British films available.
At Time Out's Q&A session with Leigh last week, he was on engaging, combatative form, dismissing lazy quesitons with a 'that's absurd' response and comically riffing on the notion on whether Another Year was inspired by the Good Life or not....
2 comments:
Revolutionary Communist Party. Good lord, those drones - still getting their direction from his highness Frank - morphed into greens-obsessed right-wing corporatists...
Sounds like a radical 'not in my name' drone if ever there was one, still getting their directions from Monbiot and thus morphed into an anti-modernist reactionary. Back to the land, comrades!
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