Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is angry. And anxious. She’s angry with her plumber husband Curtley (David Webber). With 22 year old layabout son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett). With her younger sister Chantelle (Michelle Austin). With pretty much everyone she meets - in car parks, supermarkets, her doctor and dentist, the list of targets for her anger never ends. And her anxiety makes her fearful of the world, where there is no safety.
Chantelle is a hairdresser, charming and confidence inspiring with her clients, fun and happy with her two daughters. She wants Pansy to come with her to their mother’s grave, for the anniversary of her death. Pansy even gets angry with that.
But she will eventually go, and the two families get together. But even there the contrast between the two trios is stark. While the shadow of Pansy’s anger hangs over everyone.
So what will she do with faced with a situation that requires her to act with love?
Jean-Baptiste is superb, a tightly strung band always on the verge of unwinding dramatically. Her rants are epic, her disdain apocalyptic. But the vulnerability is never far away. The reasons behind her behaviour leak out gradually.
.If this all sounds a bit grim you’d be wrong. Pansy’s ire is hilarious viewing (although you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end) because it has no rationale. We’ve all known someone like her, someone whose grumpiness and resentment is unending.
The filming is up close and personal, filled with delightfully awkward silences and mumbled excuses, while the Chantelle aspect gives off vibes of real joy. This is ordinary life in spades, the inconsequential gossip, the families that barely co-exist, the people who tolerate and those who don’t.
Another Mike Leigh masterclass in the everyday.
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