Bleak Moments

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.

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

Having been a Fan of Mike Leigh for many years I was pleased to have the opportunity to see this early film. I saw this recently as part of a Mike Leigh season on the television. I work with adults with learning difficulties and think the subject was dealt with in a very sensitive way. This film shows how demanding it would be caring for someone like this full time at home. The carer doesn't get much of a life of her own (apart from when her work friend kindly babysits ), but loves her sister and wants to help her, she wants what is best for her. She is completely unselfish and loving. Her work friend is living with a miserable and ungrateful mother who is driving her mad but the same mother gets on very well with Hilda(the retarded sister)so she can't be all bad. I thought the Man who rented the garage to play his music was lovely, he kindly came and played music to Hilda which she loved. Plus he was company for Silvia. I thought this was a lovely film with some very good acting and a moving story.

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.

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.