Life Is Sweet (1990)

A waitress, 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

David Thewlis was disappointed at being given such a small role, so Mike Leigh promised him that the next time he considered Thewlis for a role in a film, "he'd be given a fair slice of the pie." Thewlis would be cast as the lead in Leigh's next film Naked (1993), and win an award for his performance.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Natalie: Do you want some money?

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Connections

References Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

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Soundtracks

Happy Holidays
By Rachel Portman and Julian Wastall

User Reviews

Sometimes the best movies...

...are the small ones.

Mike Leigh worked with his relatively small cast (five main cast members and about four supporting cast members), improvising characters, devising scenarios and plots, and came up with this; one of his earliest masterpieces.

The plot is simple enough. A couple of days in the life of a working class London family. There isn't really a plot as such. A couple of fairly deep issues are dealt with, such as eating disorders and depression, but other than a few moments, all we are doing is watching a family live their life: a strong hard-working mother (Alison Steadman); a weaker easily-led by his mates father (Jim Broadbent); and their twin daughters: Natalie (Claire Skinner) - resourceful and kind-hearted but with a strange tendency to wear men's shirts and down pints - and Nicola (Jane Horrocks) - screwed up, rude, irrational and painfully insecure in both her looks and her intelligence.

The performances brought out by this form of filmmaking are superb - as they are in all of Leigh's movies (Secrets & Lies, Career Girls and All Or Nothing are all worthy of viewing, but especially Secrets & Lies). However, Alison Steadman is the standout (perhaps for no other reason than she has the most screen time), the driving force that brings all the family together. The scene in which she finally cracks and loses that nervous laugh to tell Nicola a few home truths and break down the barriers that Nicola has put up between herself and the rest of the world, is so beautifully written and terrifically performed that it is a shame that Steadman in particular was not Oscar-nominated.

Only one or two criticisms struck me. One was a slight lack of development of the other daughter. What exactly DOES make her tick? Am I merely stereotyping by assuming she is supposed to be a lesbian? Or is she just happy being so masculine in her dress-sense and mannerisms - (she isn't even offended by a client who calls her a 'good lad')? We never find out, because the film focuses a little more on her sister. It certainly appears that her mother suspects her daughter of being gay, but for some reason the subject is never brought up.

Similarly, a couple of loose ends are never tied up. The caravan and the restaurant in particular. But I guess we have the prerogative to make our own endings up haven't we, so that's a good thing in many ways.

I think at the end of the day, people will either like all of Mike Leigh's films or none of them. And I'm in the former group. His work is beautiful and always touching.