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 | working class | slice of life | eating disorder | lunch wagon | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and a scene of sensuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #659.

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Quotes

Wendy: [to Nicola] We don't hate you! We bloody love you, you stupid girl!

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Connections

Featured in Mike Leigh in Conversation (2008)

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Soundtracks

Happy Holidays
By Rachel Portman and Julian Wastall

User Reviews

"Aubrey's in a coma, he doesn't want any chips!"

A superb example of Mike Leigh's directing method - working with his actors, many of them regulars, making up most of the script as they go along.

No falling empires or coveted magical rings here, just the small victories and tiny despairs of everyday life - Timothy Spall's ridiculous restaurant ("Liver in Lager"??), Jane Horrocks' eating disorder and general estrangement from the world, Jim Broadbent and his grimy little burger van, Clair Skinner's endearingly sensible tomboy plumber... all exquisite little portraits. Best of all is Alison Steadman as the suburban Earth-mother trying to hold it all together.

It shows, above all, that a great film can be about anything really, as long as the direction, acting and script is of this calibre. Ben Hur, it ain't!

Absolutely marvelous - 9/10.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

December 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Life Is Sweet

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,856, 27 October 1991

Gross USA:

$1,516,414

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$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