Ladybird Ladybird

Kenneth Loach ,among all the great directors in the world,has always been one of the very few who depicts the "riff raff" ,to quote one of his works.In his universe, you will not find the young lawyer ,the yalie,the dynamic executive,the journalist with good prospects or the handsome detective with his gorgeous assistant.All his characters are individuals struggling against the authorities and who cannot win:the little boy from "kes",the young girl from 'family life",the two buddies on the dole from "looks and smiles",and the unfortunate mother from "ladybird ladybird". "Ladybird,ladybird" is a harsh movie,sometimes unbearable,definitely not for all tastes.Crissy Rock is absolutely astounding,she does not play the part,she really lives it,leaving us on the edge of our seat.Her screams,her tears,her anger are so real that,had Loach not said it was a true story,we would believe in it anyway.Loach's treatment is stripped of any embellishment.No need for strings when fate strikes once more the heroine.Her partner,an immigrant,is a good man who loves her sincerely ;he suffers because he feels helpless,and when she beats him,he does not complain:his despair is so deep he contemplates suicide.We are far from the immigrant macho cliché. The heroine must come from a poor social background,so she was never taught the rules of the game,so she is bound to fail.But Loach avoids to show us the people from the social services as "baddies":it's for her own good,they say.They reason by the establishment's rules,but they never try to communicate with the mother,deemed irresponsible,unable to get a place in the community.The end of the movie preserves the viewer from despair though.Every dog has his day,they say.May it be true for this poor couple!

Crissy Rock gives it her all in this. She plays Maggie. A single mother with 4 kids to 4 different blokes, each of them taken away by social services. She has clear behavioural problems and lives a life of poor choices and bad decisions on repeat. A woman that "smells trouble and goes to bed with it", as her neighbour describes her.

Im conflicted because the film encourages us to be more sympathetic towards the protagonist and her plight but I have no sympathy whatsoever for Maggie, and while I detest the social workers they were 100% necessary here. Maggie is an unfit mother incapable of supporting her litter, let alone herself. She is just as volatile as the men in her life, and her choice of nasty and abusive men that she chooses to subject her own children to was my main reason for thinking her a terrible mother. Clearly her own worst enemy yet the blame always lies on someone or something else and it always will because of that "poor me" mentality.

Another thing that annoyed me and it's something you see all the time sadly. Maggie tells the social worker to stop giving her child condiments with their meals because she can't afford to buy them. Fair enough right? Then you see her lighting a fag, then another, and another. If you can't afford table sauce for your children but you have money to smoke you need to recheck your goddamn priorities.

We've all seen and met people like Maggie. I've lived next to a Maggie or two in my time. The type of person that can't support or even handle the kids they have already yet they keep having them and getting them taken away. Zero aspirations in life other than getting pregnant and living off of benefits. The kind of neighbours that scream constantly and have police at their door routinely but never seem to learn or want to help themselves.

A good Ken Loach flick but far from his best. Still worth a watch but before the film starts you might want to take an aspirin for that inevitable headache.

This is a story about a British woman who struggles to keep her children. Ken Loach's movies are always good and they always deal with sad and gritty subjects. The thing that struck me most about this movie was that although I initially felt sympathy for the main character, Maggie, I quickly lost it. She's so upset she is completely uncooperative with the social services people, who are often judgmental and unlikeable, but who are only trying to do their jobs. When Maggie finds a lover who does not abuse her as her earlier partners did, she refuses to appreciate his steadfastness, his decency and his loyalty to her, and she tries to drive him away. I was surprised to find myself so unsympathetic to Maggie. My frustration with her grew, and I found myself saying, aloud, "God, she's impossible!" Even though I didn't like the character, the movie is so good, I could not tear my eyes away from it. Ken Loach is a genius. I think the hardest works are those with unsympathetic main characters. If you still find yourself fascinated, even though you find yourself detesting the protagonist in a movie, it makes the viewing even more memorable. I sometimes feel sad that I have no children; yet, when I see this story, I feel better about it. I also wonder why I cannot muster much sympathy for Maggie, even though I have things in common with the character. Society is especially unforgiving when dealing with parents. In its well-meaning interest in the welfare of the children, it often fails to reach out to the parents who are sometimes quite good people, but who are struggling to cope. Almost everyone could benefit from seeing this movie. It's highly instructive. It makes you think about the roles we, as adults, play in society, and what our responsibilities are. None of the questions and issues raised by this movie are easy to deal with. There are no easy answers. I think both great objectivity and subjectivity are necessary toward finding solutions, and both are seldom possible at the same time; hence, mistakes are made, all around. The character of the good man she finally finds is beautifully played by an unknown actor. I wondered how he could continue to be so good, and yet I felt myself completely frustrated with him and annoyed with him when he tried to explain his reasons for being a political exile from his country of origin in a court hearing. He was so upset that for once, he couldn't think clearly and couldn't express himself adequately. This showed me that despite his "good" qualities, under extreme pressure, he could be as hard to understand and to help as Maggie is. This movie is based on a true story, which is, sadly, not hard to believe. This same type of situation is played out again and again. What to do? Leave children in questionable households, or take them away? Try to see this movie and to share it with someone who is troubled, who has been abused, and who has had problems dealing with administrations of almost any kind. It's very instructive, even though, as I've said, no answers are given.

I challenge any parent who has been questioned over the care of the children or any person who has been unjustly accused of neglect as I have have once been, to sit and watch this disturbing powerhouse of a film. I paused it twice during my original sitting and had to take a moment to deal with what I was being confronted with once again. Rarely . . . yes VERY RARELY does a film or a movie engage me to this point. I have seen several Ken Loach films and I live in admiration of this artist/man, but yet I wasn't prepared for what I sat and watched. I give this 10 out of 10 and am shocked that it hasn't been recognised further by any awards society such as "The Bafta" and "Academy Awards".

Chrissy Rock, I take my hat off to you to have the guts to give all that you gave for your performance, the the actor that played "Jorge" . . you have delivered a standout performance. Ken Loach, you are my hero.

Indeed I stand by my title, possibly the most powerful and disturbing film every made. Magnificent. Ambitious. It delivers.

I've seen this film twice now,and although it can be argued that the character of Maggie is as much a victim of the system as her children,it's just really difficult to feel sorry for her.We have here a woman who has 5 children by 5 different fathers,continually makes bad choices in men and continues her cycle of abuse,has one son almost die in a tragic accident that is a direct result of her leaving them alone,and then can't understand why Social Services can't just stay out of her life and let her raise the rest of her children.The performances are top-notch here,but Maggie is more to be pitied for her lack of responsible behavior than anything else.