Bleak Moments

The characters in Mike Leigh's films live in different, often isolated worlds. Some haltingly, painfully attempt to communicate and relate to one another. Others just blindly or blithely drift by. There is some caring, often much misunderstanding. In Leigh's later films the characters come to some reconciliation, but there is no such relief for them here. The movie is, true to its name, bleak.

Tom Noonan's "What Happened Was", which is highly recommended to anyone who likes this film, is really a working out of one critical "coffee and sherry" scene in Bleak Moments.

One of the best films I've seen in recent years. 10/10

Seldom has a movie been more aptly titled than Mike Leigh's debut "Bleak Moments". It's the story of Sylvia, (an excellent Anne Raitt), an attractive but lonely spinster who lives with her mentally challenged sister and whose life is indeed a series of bleak moments in which nothing very much happens. Most of Leigh's early works have been bleakly funny and, more often than not, uncomfortably so as if we are being invited to laugh at the sad sacks who make up his world rather than empathize with them and "Bleak Moments" certainly sets the tone for what was to follow. This is a grim and not very pleasant picture chock full of grim and not very pleasant people. It's brilliantly acted, (Leigh has always been a great director of actors), but it's not an easy movie to like.

Bleak Moments, by Mike Leigh, is an outstanding piece of modern cinema. The characterisation in his first film for the big screen is rich, and as always Leigh mixes the serious and dramatic elements of his film with realism and humour. The film focuses on a woman caring for her mentally retarded sister whilst trying to strike up a relationship with an inhibited schoolteacher. The film avoids unnecessary sentimentality; the relationship between the characters seems as much taken from reality as from dramatic creation.

Some of the film's inherent humour is tremendous, but most noticeable is its accurate but dramatic portrayal of life through the characters' eyes. Mike Leigh may have made more accessible films later on, but this is as good as any of his later works.

Mike Leigh's directorial debut remains some forty years later a powerful story which focuses on the ordinary living of a group of Londoners trying to carve out some meager semblance of existence. The true conflict resides within: nearly all of the characters Leigh centralizes on have some form of deep-set emotional turmoil raging inside of them. Sylvia, the main character who lives alone while caring for her mentally handicapped sister and working at a secretarial job she doesn't care for, seems not only disappointed in her life but also helpless in any way to improve upon her current situation.

She attempts to start up some kind of relationship with Peter, a shy and introspective schoolteacher but he seems even more apprehensive and cautious than she. Added to this mix are Pat, a rather talkative friend from work with her own set of issues, and Norm, a really odd but likable hippie-type living next door to Sylvia who attracts her through his gentility and musical ability.

Leigh's ability to probe deep within these characters and expose their innermost pain and turmoil is truly astonishing to see. So much is said with a facial gesture or expression of the eyes. Silence dominates the conversations of these people, leaving the audience ample time to study the atmosphere of the situation and the long-term results of such behavior. Certainly this is a stunning debut and lays the groundwork for future works exploring even further the inner workings of human relations.

At one time I believe this was thought as Loving Moments and at the end of the film it thinks that it maybe should be but certainly from the beginning it is very Bleak Moments. The woman is Sylvia the beautiful and smiling luminously as like a Mona Lisa to those around her. She lives alone with her 29 year old sister, Hilda whose is mentally challenged. There is a drifter, Norman he pretends to play guitar and camps in Sylvia's garage although he sometimes goes inside and has a cup of tea, a fag and perhaps a few nuts, maybe five or two. Pat works with Sylvia in an office and she lives with her bedridden mother but would rather have Sylvia's sister instead. The other star is Peter who would like to chat with Sylvia but it seems that even he can't get on better than anyone else. It is all rather uncompromising but maybe the people along will get on as it seems and that there appears it me perhaps not as bleak as it looks.