X
- 1991
- R
- October Films
- 1 h 43 m
- 1991
- R
- October Films
- 1 h 43 m
Summary 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 brok...
Directed By: Mike Leigh
Written By: Mike Leigh
- 1991
- R
- October Films
- 1 h 43 m
- 1991
- R
- October Films
- 1 h 43 m
Life Is Sweet
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary 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 brok...
Directed By: Mike Leigh
Written By: Mike Leigh
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
88
89% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
88
89% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It's a measure of Leigh's sensitivity that the big scene arises naturally, never threatening the delicate fabric of the narrative... And not only has Leigh grown as a storyteller, he appears to have acquired exactly the right amount of filmmaking technique to tell his story.
Leigh hasn't the affect of a poet, but he's a poet nonetheless. This movie captures the smallish details in life that perhaps you've felt before, but have never before seen on screen. He has a genius for the commonplace. It is truly sweet stuff.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 User Ratings
7.1
64% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
27% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
9% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 User Ratings
7.1
64% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
27% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
9% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
The siblings opposing and denying in their confessional meltdown, is some of the best writing I have seen in my life.
Life Is Sweet
Leigh is an optimistic filmmaker. I mean you can say that from the title itself. But before I start, let me come out and say that I might not be the perfect guy to say something about the writer and director, Mike Leigh's film. For saying that the film is close to me, would be understating. It is a story about my family. In fact, the younger kid, the lead character, is me. So before you move further, my point should not be accounted, for it may be biased. Still, I'll try to be vague and less focused on coming up with some varied adjective describing my affection towards Mike Leigh and his lofty project- last one, I promise.
Let's try and bring out the disadvantageous side effects. And let's give the devil his due, the film has the consistency to run for an hour episode, maximum. It is not that the rest of the material is stretched. It's just that Leigh persists us on understanding the views of other members before closing up. He requires the momentum of the characters to carry enough weight when they finally collide with each other. And it does pay off, undoubtedly.
And there is this additional character of Timothy Spall whose swag is on thousand throughout the course of the film. Watch him put on a funky suit and carefree attitude that rests upon the doom that he has been calling for. And David Thewlis is more like the voice of reason, a surprise package, whose thought provoking questions are as good as absurd. Yet, I find myself recalling the tiny elements that Leigh has spread out to collect and swoon over. Jane Horrocks whispered the secret far before the film ends, when she smokes a cigarette for a lunch, her bitter and sharp looks exhales that Life Is Sweet.
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Life is indeed sweet, but that's only if you're living in an easy life. Life is Sweet proves that easy side of life but can't bring it to us so we'll have to go to it to get the easy life.
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As a precise observation of British types and a virtuoso piece of carefully observed ensemble playing, the film would be hard to beat.
Sweet (maybe) - but also painful (for sure). So painful that it's initially easy to resist this slice-of-Middlesex-life from Brit director Mike Leigh. Yet gradually, a mom, a dad and late-teen twins prove overwhelmingly winning through sheer willpower. Theirs, and the willpower of an idiosyncratic filmmaker who loves his characters no matter what. [24 Dec. 1991, p.4D]
Life is Sweet is sweet indeed - and comic and quirky and, on those occasions when the tone deftly shifts, just a little sad... Leigh's work, and the quotidian life it depicts, is sometimes slim but never insubstantial, occasionally sweet but never a sugary confection. And always worth celebrating. [24 Jan. 1992]
It's not a wonderful family, and the lives thus illuminated aren't sweet at all. But the movie is both things. In his sheer affinity for the human, Leigh approaches the great Jean Renoir. What fun to watch. [21 Feb. 1992, p.5]
Life Is Sweet observes this constellation of people without ever really commenting on their lots. Very little occurs and thus, if you don't find yourself drawn to these characters, you will find yourself wondering when it will all be over.
This is very much a 90s film about a dysfunctional British family. It was quite amusing, if only for the scenes with Timothy Spall's character - him in big bright red, round glasses was enough to make me laugh, never mind the moody accent and his drunkenness in one scene. The cast is good all round, with a young Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks and Clare Skinner etc. There's humour in the dialogue and while its hardly an exciting watch, the characters are certainly quirky (if quite gobby!) and its a pretty entertaining watch. I quite enjoyed this film, so yes I'd recommend it.
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About a dysfunctional family in England. I found it hard to relate to family members. I recommend subtitles to understand what the actors are saying. Watched this movie at home with a dvd on loan from the library.
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Awards
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA
• 3 Wins & 4 Nominations
Taormina International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Bodil Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
