Bleak Moments

Mike Leigh is much more effective in "Bleak Moments" than his later, more popular efforts like "Secrets and Lies". The latter lacks much of the intensity and focus of this film.

The characters in Mike Leigh's films live in different, often isolated worlds. Some haltingly, painfully attempt to communicate and relate to one another. Others just blindly or blithely drift by. There is some caring, often much misunderstanding. In Leigh's later films the characters come to some reconciliation, but there is no such escape for them here. The movie is, true to its name, bleak.

Tom Noonan's "What Happened Was", which is highly recommended to anyone who likes this film, is really a working out of one critical "coffee and sherry" scene in Bleak Moments.

One of the best films I've seen in recent years. 10/10

At one time I believe this was thought as Loving Moments and at the end of the film it thinks that it maybe should be but certainly from the beginning it is very Bleak Moments. The woman is Sylvia the beautiful and smiling luminously as like a Mona Lisa to those around her. She lives alone with her 29 year old sister, Hilda whose is mentally challenged. There is a drifter, Norman he pretends to play guitar and camps in Sylvia's garage although he sometimes goes inside and has a cup of tea, a fag and perhaps a few nuts, maybe five or two. Pat works with Sylvia in an office and she lives with her bedridden mother but would rather have Sylvia's sister instead. The other star is Peter who would like to chat with Sylvia but it seems that even he can't get on better than anyone else. It is all rather uncompromising but maybe the people along will get on as it seems and that there appears it me perhaps not as bleak as it looks.

Mike Leigh is the undisputed king of the awkward moment. He takes a this cinematic staple and extrapolates it into clenching agonies of time. In some of his films, Leigh allows the unease to build up to a crescendo, and in other films he simply lets it simmer. It's safe to say the awkward silence is something of a Leigh trademark, and in this film we are given a searing, painful stretch involving five pathologically shy people.

Sylvia is an attractive yet shy working-class woman caring for her mentally disabled sister, Hilda. Her well-meaning harridan of a workmate pitches in to help from time to time, but Sylvia knows this woman is a credulous boob. There's a teacher down the street, also shy to the point of being socially inept. He likes Hilda, but that dog won't hunt, so he takes a shine to Sylvia.

Will either of these two break through their timidity? Will anyone get face to face and come down to brass tacks? If Leigh's vision of stodgy English reserve and working class ennui has anything to say about it, we can assume it's not likely...

This slow and bleak film isn't for everyone, but it helps one understand the foundations that Leigh created early in his career.

Netflix has most of Mike Leigh's earlier films, including his early BBC films, available for on-demand streaming, so I thought I'd check out his debut feature, being a fan.

The absence of artifice in Leigh's films is always very refreshing. You never get the Hollywood "sheen" on the story. Even when he uses Names, the performances never seem like performances, but rather a scene you would most likely walk in on if you opened the front door of any house at random.

That lack of artifice is particularly glaring in Bleak Moments and one can't help but wonder if this was part of what Leigh was trying to get across: the conversations appear to be shot in first-take improvisational style and if things happen, they do, and if they don't, they don't. He isn't going to force an unnatural performance and you shouldn't expect one, either.

There's a lot going on in these pregnant pauses, however, and many shadings of self-consciousness to sift through before you glimpse the tortured soul behind each character. It is a subtle and classy trick, as other have pointed out, that the least self-conscious and therefore joyous character is developmentally-disabled Hilda.

Occasionally Leigh will show-off a bit, and to good effect, particularly in the fast cut group of headshots prior to Sylvia and Peter's date, but for the most part he plays it cool and just lets us bask in the glow of some great, naturalistic acting.

Having been a Fan of Mike Leigh for many years I was pleased to have the opportunity to see this early film. I saw this recently as part of a Mike Leigh season on the television. I work with adults with learning difficulties and think the subject was dealt with in a very sensitive way. This film shows how demanding it would be caring for someone like this full time at home. The carer doesn't get much of a life of her own (apart from when her work friend kindly babysits ), but loves her sister and wants to help her, she wants what is best for her. She is completely unselfish and loving. Her work friend is living with a miserable and ungrateful mother who is driving her mad but the same mother gets on very well with Hilda(the retarded sister)so she can't be all bad. I thought the Man who rented the garage to play his music was lovely, he kindly came and played music to Hilda which she loved. Plus he was company for Silvia. I thought this was a lovely film with some very good acting and a moving story.