A review.
Usually I steer clear of Mike Leigh, because his habit of casting ultra middle class actors to improvise their lines, spoken in what they fondly imagine are bona fide estuary accents (or worse, apple-me-pears corblimey love-a-duck cockney) sets my teeth on edge. Writers should write, and actors should act, unless they're Sam Shepherd. Give actors free reign and they'll try for pathos and dive straight into bathos, they can't help it, sorry it's harsh but true. [Brenda Blethyn, you might well hang your head in shame.] And rather than 'dark' or 'moving' or any of those adjectives that get bandied around, I find his films wildly irritating.
But I couldn't help but see this one, seeing as it has a primary school teacher as a heroine. It's also more chirpy and positive than, say, Naked or Secrets and Lies. So It still does differ from RL considerably - it's not Hollywood, but being a film, couldn't help but tidy up those rough edges a bit, and I couldn't help but compare:
Film: London (specifically Finsbury Park and Camden) is a picturesque, clean, sunshiny sort of place.
RL: Dog shit, pigeon shit, fast food containers and plastic bags litter streets under a leaden sky while acid rain pisses down on the miserable residents.
Film: Camden Market is a quaint little place at which you browse in peace at colourful stalls.
RL: Camden Market is hell on earth filled with Spanish goths.
Film: When a little lad seem troubled and angry, Poppy speaks straight away to the head.
RL: The head is in meetings with auditors and/or governors for the next 5 years, and isn't actually sure who you are, let alone one of the kids.
Film: A social worker turns up to talk to the child.
RL: The child will have grown up and left home and probably be in a young offenders' institution by the time they have gone through the long slow process of referrals.
Film: The social worker is a gorgeous young man.
RL: The social worker is a knackered middle aged woman.
Film: Poppy spends her weekend doing careful research and making lovely resources for her class.
RL: Monday morning - fuck fuck fuck, where are the fucking numberlines? Why the fuck can't people put things back in the right place? Arsehole fucking bastards.
All in all though, it's pretty feelgood & gets the nod from me.
About teaching and crying
1 day ago
9 comments:
*snorts* But what are numberlines?
An essential tool of the trade used to establish a strategy for mental calculations - strips of card with numbers 1 to 20, (sort of like a ruler then), very helpful when you're learning to count on and back.
Film Really annoying women as lead who you're meant to find enduring
RK Really enduring women as the lead who is enduring.
Where RK = RL
You mean enduring hon,or endearing?
I thought Poppy was secretly a bit passive-aggressive.
My experience of the film is limited to that poster where yer wanno's standing there all "Ha haa!" which is in itself quite uplifting.
Film vs real life - yup, that sounds about right. You missed out "the social worker gets suspended from work pending investigations" and "in knee-jerk reaction the child is removed from family home and put into care, all because the father owns some heavy metal albums".
I though Camden Market was full of Japanese goths?
I remember a film a few years ago called This Summer's Love (or something like that) set in Camden Lock Market. Can't recall much about it except it had some freaky obsessive character in it.
Went to see this last night with your comments fresh in my mind. Found Poppy extremely irritating - no wonder almost everyone around her was a frothing heart-attack waiting to happen.
Missed out the comma, sorry.
"frothing heart-attack" indeed!
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