Bleak Moments

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.

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.

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.

a.k.a Loving Moments – and this seems the better title. The story is moving and full of quiet humor. Let's just say, from soup to nuts. Moreover, Sylvia, the sensitive bookish main character, is able to see the humor in the situations she encounters. Anne Rait, who plays Sylvia, is gorgeous. Her luminous smile, her sometimes furrowed brow, her tightly drawn-back black hair, her tentativeness, her quiet strength – no problems watching her for 100 minutes – and the director does his utmost to capture her charm and her latent emotions on film. For me, this film is not about people who fail to make relationships, but simply about people and relationships.

Netflix has most of Mike Leigh's earlier films, including his early BBC films, available for on-demand streaming, so I thought I'd check out his debut feature, being a fan.

The absence of artifice in Leigh's films is always very refreshing. You never get the Hollywood "sheen" on the story. Even when he uses Names, the performances never seem like performances, but rather a scene you would most likely walk in on if you opened the front door of any house at random.

That lack of artifice is particularly glaring in Bleak Moments and one can't help but wonder if this was part of what Leigh was trying to get across: the conversations appear to be shot in first-take improvisational style and if things happen, they do, and if they don't, they don't. He isn't going to force an unnatural performance and you shouldn't expect one, either.

There's a lot going on in these pregnant pauses, however, and many shadings of self-consciousness to sift through before you glimpse the tortured soul behind each character. It is a subtle and classy trick, as other have pointed out, that the least self-conscious and therefore joyous character is developmentally-disabled Hilda.

Occasionally Leigh will show-off a bit, and to good effect, particularly in the fast cut group of headshots prior to Sylvia and Peter's date, but for the most part he plays it cool and just lets us bask in the glow of some great, naturalistic acting.