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Terence Davis moving, harrowing and elegantly artistic masterpiece is one of the few Britsh films of recent years to embody a distinctly British identity. The plot involves a family wedding in working class Liverpool just after the second world war and the various episodes in the family's past dealing with their sometimes brutal and disturbed father. The beauty of the film lies in the deeply artistic composition of various shots, coupled with Davis' enduring compassion and understanding for the chararcters, especially the father played brilliantly by Pete Postlethwaite. It is an incredible evocation of family life and even though at times it makes for hard viewing, this is a film that must be seen.

This film caught me 14 years ago when I first saw it.. and yesterday I was really touched by it again. A registration of 'forgotten' times somewhere during....the first half of the 20th century in Britain...a Totally Overwhelming sense of melancholy filmed in an extraordinary way by Terence Davies.A true work of art. The excellent idea of calling up emotions by letting the characters sing the sing-along songs of the era.... Then there is the photography of this film...seldom have i seen a modern day movie that brings up past times as this piece of wonder.... very , very tastefully done...the coloring and costume designs , the decorations...everything works to give you the idea that you'r staring into a timemaschine...wow.. amazing ! Heartbraking story of 'normal lives , by normal people , who are all gone and 'forgotten'... Still one of the most amazing pieces of cinema around !

Pete posthlewaite hits a performance that is so unique it is frightening. so true was the passion there where times in the movie when I wished he would die! The episodic and random nature of the flashbacks made it seem like memories from one's own childhood which reinforced the naturalistic acting and indeed made it almost voyeuristic! The true beauty of the film lies in the realism of the scenes and in the accurate depiction of life as it really is in all it's ugliness! Above all the movie said to me that out of "brutallity" can come "compassion and humanity". One scene really hits home is the Christmas scene where the camera pans up an idyllic British street where the Christmas lights are shining and by nature our faces are starting to smile and then dissolves into the living room where the family are sitting in expectation. You can feel the tension as you see the first shot and when he pulls the tablecloth off the table and shouts "CLEAN THIS UP",I remember jumping up!!! MASTERPIECE In my eyes yes! 10 OUT OF 10

This film grows on you - the first time I saw it, it was rather bleak and just a bit boring.

However, the more you think about it and if you were lucky enough to record it and watch it again, it slowly but surely turns into a masterpiece.

The characters, the setting, the atmosphere is true England - England which has all but disappeared. This film is so unique it deserves a place up there with the likes of Citizen Kane, Pelle The Conqueror etc. etc.

Don´t miss it!!!

Terrance Davies' two-part nostalgia exercise is, depending on your tolerance for unembellished honesty, either a sentimental trip down memory lane or a cold-eyed wallow in drab English monotony. The British writer director went to great lengths to re-create a facsimile of working class family life circa 1940-1950, and his meticulous attention to detail sets an almost too perfect mood: the film is both painfully realistic and totally depressing. Using a fragmented, hopscotch style approximating the actual process of memory itself, Davies mixes bits and pieces of autobiographical detail to show how cultural traditions have a way of repeating themselves for a typical Liverpool family, held together by stifling blue collar conditions and a good deal of recreational singing (38 period songs are featured on the soundtrack). The snapshot style doesn't allow for any dramatic momentum, but the film is constructed more as a sampling of brief, transient moments, and is extremely well crafted and emotional despite the often oppressive melancholy.