MovieChat Forums > Life Is Sweet Discussion > Can't see the justice in this film

Can't see the justice in this film


A couple years ago my film teacher showed this to our class. It is the most boring pile of crap I have ever seen. The characters are dull, as are their lives. So maybe dull is sweet, on Mike Leighs message in this film, but sweet this film is not. I have no interest in a film that is no more than a sentimental dramatisation of lower class life. I like my movies to have a story (and yes, films that portray gritty realism can have them too) and this film is just a series of incoherent rabblings. You are compelled to hate most of the characters from the moment you set eyes upon them because of how immensely irritating they are. Jane Horrocks character is like something from a looney tunes cartoon.
However, the film also taught me something. When you're going to shoot a film, or an interesting one anyway, you're going to need to write a script. Save improvisational acting for the comics, because it's boooooring in the context of a film.
There's my rant, now the fans may scorn me for how stupid and uncivilised I am for not understanding this "work of art".

"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth,"

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Well, yeah, it IS kinda sweet - but never cheaply sentimental or condescending as someone suggested; you must have mixed Mike Leigh up with someone else. I think Leigh has a really sensitive hand and insight in depicting the lower class millieu in great deal of nuance (also, Horrocks's character may start out as fairly one-dimensional, but she's hardly that by the end of the film).



"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

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OP makes valid points and we can tell that because the only criticism of OP is about his or her signature line and not anything that OP said about the film.

I agree. This movie stinks. I am quite surprised by this because so many of his other films are incredibly amazing.

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