Life Is Sweet (1990)

A shop assistant, her cook husband, & their twin daughters ponder their lives over a few weeks in a working-class suburb north of London.

Director:

Mike Leigh

Writer:

Mike Leigh

Stars:

Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Claire Skinner

8 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Alison Steadman	...	Wendy
Jim Broadbent	...	Andy
Claire Skinner	...	Natalie
Jane Horrocks	...	Nicola
Stephen Rea	...	Patsy
Timothy Spall	...	Aubrey
David Thewlis	...	Nicola's Lover
Moya Brady	...	Paula
David Neilson	...	Steve
Harriet Thorpe	...	Customer
Paul Trussell	...	Chef (as Paul Trussel)
Jack Thorpe Baker	...	Nigel

Storyline

Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon. Natalie, with short neat hair and a snappy, droll manner, is a plumber; she has a holiday planned in America, but little else. Last is Nicola, odd man out: a snarl, big glasses, cigarette, mussed hair, jittery fingers, bulimic, jobless, and unhappy. How they interact and play out family conflict and love is the film's subject.

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Plot Keywords:

twin | tied up | secret lover | midlife crisis | compassion | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and a scene of sensuality

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

December 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Vida é Doce

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Gross USA:

$1,516,414

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Screen Productions, Channel Four Films, Thin Man Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Aubrey's bizarre recipes were devised by Mike Leigh and Timothy Spall over the course of an evening, and then checked for plausibility with a professional chef, who advised them about which ones were technically impossible to prepare; all the ones that appear in the film are, as Leigh put it, "all feasible, gross as it sounds."

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Quotes

[Natalie and Nicola ponder having children]
Natalie: Well, I wouldn't fancy bringing one up on me own.
Nicola: It's better to be on your own than be with a bastard.
Natalie: Well, presumably you wouldn't *choose* a bastard in the first place if you had any sense!
Nicola: All men are bastards!
Natalie: *What*?
Nicola: They're all potential rapists!
Natalie: That's a bit sweeping!
Nicola: All men have got the ability to rape.
Natalie: Well they don't all do it, do they!
[...]

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Connections

Featured in The South Bank Show: Mike Leigh (2002)

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Soundtracks

Happy Holidays
By Rachel Portman and Julian Wastall

User Reviews

Extra-ordinary

I often fantasise about directing a movie (yes, I know I'm sad!), and I would like to think that my movies would come out like Mike Leigh's: affectionate without being sentimental, funny without crossing over into out-and-out comedy, realistic without being bleak or depressing.

This portrayal of an "ordinary" English family is everything a film ought to be. Great acting - Alison Steadman in particular - her character's relentless optimism and cheerfulness interspersed with knowing when a situation needs to be treated more seriously; Jim Broadbent as the day-dreaming father and Jane Horrocks as the anorexic Nicola. All the characters are beautifully drawn, including the minor characters (Timothy Spall as doomed chef Aubrey, Stephen Rea as dodgy-dealer Patsy, David Thewlis as Nicola's unnamed lover).

Some typical Leigh scenes include the excellently framed shot of the burger-van in the scrapyard (which could almost be a painting!), and the panning shot along the back of the row of houses (implying that similar dramas are unfolding in everyone's lives).

Not much actually happens, but that's part of the point - it takes in themes of happiness, hopes and dreams, friendship and family ties. Clearly a precursor to "Secrets And Lies", this is a simpler, purer film, but with the same message of ultimate optimism.