Bleak Moments

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.

Seldom has a movie been more aptly titled than Mike Leigh's debut "Bleak Moments". It's the story of Sylvia, (an excellent Anne Raitt), an attractive but lonely spinster who lives with her mentally challenged sister and whose life is indeed a series of bleak moments in which nothing very much happens. Most of Leigh's early works have been bleakly funny and, more often than not, uncomfortably so as if we are being invited to laugh at the sad sacks who make up his world rather than empathize with them and "Bleak Moments" certainly sets the tone for what was to follow. This is a grim and not very pleasant picture chock full of grim and not very pleasant people. It's brilliantly acted, (Leigh has always been a great director of actors), but it's not an easy movie to like.

Mike Leigh's directorial debut remains some forty years later a powerful story which focuses on the ordinary living of a group of Londoners trying to carve out some meager semblance of existence. The true conflict resides within: nearly all of the characters Leigh centralizes on have some form of deep-set emotional turmoil raging inside of them. Sylvia, the main character who lives alone while caring for her mentally handicapped sister and working at a secretarial job she doesn't care for, seems not only disappointed in her life but also helpless in any way to improve upon her current situation.

She attempts to start up some kind of relationship with Peter, a shy and introspective schoolteacher but he seems even more apprehensive and cautious than she. Added to this mix are Pat, a rather talkative friend from work with her own set of issues, and Norm, a really odd but likable hippie-type living next door to Sylvia who attracts her through his gentility and musical ability.

Leigh's ability to probe deep within these characters and expose their innermost pain and turmoil is truly astonishing to see. So much is said with a facial gesture or expression of the eyes. Silence dominates the conversations of these people, leaving the audience ample time to study the atmosphere of the situation and the long-term results of such behavior. Certainly this is a stunning debut and lays the groundwork for future works exploring even further the inner workings of human relations.

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 relief 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

a.k.a Loving Moments – and this seems the better title. The story is moving and full of quiet humor. Let's just say, from soup to nuts. Moreover, Sylvia, the sensitive bookish main character, is able to see the humor in the situations she encounters. Anne Rait, who plays Sylvia, is gorgeous. Her luminous smile, her sometimes furrowed brow, her tightly drawn-back black hair, her tentativeness, her quiet strength – no problems watching her for 100 minutes – and the director does his utmost to capture her charm and her latent emotions on film. For me, this film is not about people who fail to make relationships, but simply about people and relationships.