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Information
- Year
- 1990
- Runtime
- 103 min.
- Director
- Mike Leigh
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
- Rating *
- 7.5
- Votes *
- 5,792
- Checks
- 1,536
- Favs
- 136
- Dislikes
- 14
- Favs/checks
- 8.9% (1:11)
- Favs/dislikes
- 10:1
Top comments
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toopsy
that mother & daughter brawl between Wendy and Nicola alone would propel this movie to my favourites 11 years 5 months ago -
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Siskoid
Life Is Sweet was Mike Leigh's second feature, a tragi-comedy about middle-class ambitions, some over-reaching, some listlessly lacking, most denied fulfillment. And so, about how to react to disappointment. Do you keep fighting? Manage expectations? Withdraw and give up? The characters give us a broad spectrum. While we're mostly following a family with two grown up twins still living at home (fraternal twins, but Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks really do look like each other, geez), there's an extended subplot about a friend of the family played by Timothy Spall starting a restaurant, and though it's a story that serves as contrast to the rest, he's putting on a funny voice and playing it so broadly as to be a major impediment to one's enjoyment. Much more interesting are the happy-go-lucky parents, Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent laughing themselves through life lest it drag them down, and the daughters, in particular Horrocks' self-destructive Nicola. Mike Leigh's strength is definitely to present characters you find pretty unlikable, expose their vulnerability, and melt your heart by film's end. And that happens here. Whatever my annoyance with Spall, or other characters' tics and flaws, there's an emotional climax that gets me, and then an ending that isn't one, because life doesn't have movie endings, and you're left living with the characters for a while. 5 years 2 months ago
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In 4 official lists
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This movie ranks #95 in BFI's Top 100 British Films
BFI's Top 100 British Fi…
95 -
This movie ranks #473 in The New York Times's Book of Movies
The New York Times's Boo…
473 -
This movie ranks #520 in The Guardian's 1000 Films to See Before You Die
The Guardian's 1000 Film…
520 -
This movie ranks #784 in The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
784