All or Nothing
 |
 |
 |
 |
Notez ce film |
, 2002
De Mike Leigh
Scénario : Mike Leigh
Avec : Marion Bailey, James Corden, Alison Garland, Paul Jesson, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Timothy Spall
Durée : 2h08
Sortie : 01/01/2002
Three families are sharing a small suburbian building. The couple, Phil and Penny, are constantly yelling at each other. But a small event seems to sound a wake up call for them…
Mike Leigh’s new movie, who very rightly came back from this year’s Cannes Film Festival empty-handed, is just another of these tear-jerking, pity-me socially-conscious and narcissistic movies that English cinema has produced too many of in recent years. The script pulls on each and everyone of the strings of melodrama with complete self-indulgence. The characters are all crudely depicted; most of the clichés are there : Phil is badly payed and treated like crap by his boss. Penny, his wife, works at a supermarket. Their two kids are obese monsters: Rory is unemployed and hangs around on the couch watching TV; Rachel sweeps the floor in a retirement home and her only friend is a sexually-obsessed senior citizen.
Everything is so predictable in its use of clichés that all our good will gets killed off instantly. There is no possible way to relate to any of the characters when everything gets drowned in sappy violins.
We could go on for long just making the list of everything that’s insulting in All or Nothing: contrived and stupid oppositions (the poor taxi driver vs. the rich and snobbish French bourgeoise), predictable and heavy-handed situations, crudely drawn out characters. Too bad for Mike Leigh.
