neumu [ cinematronic ]




	All Or Nothing
	Mike Leigh Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, Alison Garland, James Corden, Ruth Sheen, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Sam Kelly, Kathryn Hunter 2002		An agonizing move back into working-class drama for British writer/director Mike Leigh, whose previous opus, "Topsy-Turvy," was a lively film about Victorian composers Gilbert & Sullivan. Leigh is usually known for depressing fare that lays bare the human condition at its most cheerless. Even with brief flashes of humor, Leigh's "High Hopes," "Life Is Sweet" and "Naked" are painful to watch, but it's impossible to turn away from them. "All or Nothing," set in a dingy, urban housing project for lower-income families, is back in that mode. Relying on members of his informal repertory company, Leigh casts pudgy, hangdog Timothy Spall as a forlorn cabdriver who is so unconvinced of his ability to keep his family afloat through lean times that he's become emotionally paralyzed, and Lesley Manville as the cabbie's rebuffed, bottled-up wife who works at a supermarket check-out line and is on the verge of losing it. A family crisis involving their lazy, obese son is only one of the frayed plot threads holding together this dreary, imposing tapestry. It's a dirty job, and Leigh had the guts to do it.