Dysphoria, angst and ennui suffuse among the blue collar folks in Mike Leigh's ALL OR NOTHING, if SECRETS AND LIES (1996) brilliantly tickles our interest and attention through its seething unfolding of a beggar-belief secret and its aftermath, here, Leigh seems to bent on testing audience's sufferance of outrageous banality.
Dwelling in a council estate, there are three families in ALL OR NOTHING, middle-aged Phil (Spall) is a taxi driver and his significant other Penny (Manville) is a supermarket cashier, they have two children, the obese Rory (Corden) is a stroppy ne'er-do-well and daughter Rachel (Garland) works as a cleaner in an elderly home; Phil's fellow mate Ron (Jesson) has an alcoholic wife Carol (Bailey), their daughter Samantha (Hawkins) is a shiftless flirt, stalked by a creep named Craig (Crompton); moreover, Penny's coworker Maureen (Sheen) is a single mother, her rebellious waitress daughter Donna (Coker) is stuck in an abusive relationship with the caddish Jason (Mays). At least at first glance, none of those characters is remotely likable, the lifeworld of ALL OR NOTHING is dispiriting and vexing,intergenerational incompatibility manifests with vituperations and backchats, why should we sympathize with those people?
The answer what Leigh elicits is that those people are our own kind, and the rowdy, abrasive coexistence between parents and children is universal, almost too close to home, their flaws are what make them human. An accidental pregnancy, a bloody tattoo on the chest, a guarded proposition, a fender bender, or the tipping point of Rory's heart attack, all can trigger off small or big changes for better or worse.
The tripartite structure converges and stays with Phil and Penny's family halfway through the film, in the aftermath of Rory's accident, which is concurrent with Phil going incommunicado after taking a high-toned French passenger (Hunter, quite a hoot) to her destination. He needs some headspace, yet it finally precipitates Penny to rail against him at night, their without-the-benefit-of-clergy union is porous already, can their “tea, hot chocolate and beer” situation be redeemed?
A foregone conclusion, Leigh's stock company could do no wrong. A young Sally Hawkins (in her first credited film role) shines almost hurtfully as a silly girl borne out of a shitty family, how many unwise decisions her Samantha has to make before she can smarten up? Please stay away from that creep! But the top-shelf supporting turn is from Ruth Sheen, whose slightly kooky Maureen turns out to be rather informed, funny and considerate, her pain only glistens when she finds out Donna is saddled with the same fate as hers, but in the next breath, she bestirs herself blithely to be a comforting mother what her spoiled daughter needs most.
In the leading parts, Spall and Manville deliver a kaleidoscopic two-hander of catharsis in that confessional night, pertaining to middle-age stagnancy, disillusion, loneliness and hardened incommunicableness, its effect is so vehement and heartfelt, anticipates the climatic bust-up in Noah Baumbach's MARRIAGE STORY (2019). But can you detect a whiff of sexism in Leigh's verdict? It is infallibly from a man's angle, and Spall effectively avails himself of his uncharacteristically arresting hangdog impression that Leigh's camera dwells on addictively, Phil's resignation and piteous self-abasement might appease Penny's perennial disappointment, but she is not the only one who ought to take the culpability, man up, Phil!
referential entries: Mike Leigh's SECRETS AND LIES (1996, 8.4/10), ANOTHER YEAR (2010, 8.1/10); Noah Baumbach's MARRIAGE STORY (2019, 7.9/10).
Title: All or Nothing
Year: 2002
Country: UK, France
Language: English, Arabic, French
Genre: Drama
Director/Screenwriter: Mike Leigh
Music: Andrew Dickson
Cinematography: Dick Pope
Editing: Lesley Walker
Cast:
Timothy Spall
Lesley Manville
Alison Garland
James Corden
Paul Jesson
Sally Hawkins
Marion Bailey
Ruth Sheen
Helen Coker
Daniel Mays
Diveen Henry
Gary McDonald
Sam Kelly
Ben Crompton
Kathryn Hunter
Leo Bill
Dorothy Atkinson
Maxine Peake
Rating: 7.5/10
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