(1989) 100% /A) (6) NYT Critics' Pick http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=940DE4D91331F937A1575AC0A96E948260 * * * * "See my profile for the key to this code" * * * * SYNOPSIS: "Cyril and Shirley are a young, working-class couple who, in their struggle to make ends meet, have become absorbed in socialism. Cyril's sister Valerie and her husband aspire to a more privileged class. The only glue holding the siblings together is their withdrawn and wistful old mother. Director Mike Leigh uses improvisation to weave social left-wing commentary into wistful comedy." CONSENSUS: "Director Mike Leigh sees his characters and their lifestyles so vividly, so mercilessly and with such a sharp satirical edge, that the movie achieves a neat trick: We start by laughing at the others, and end by feeling uncomfortable about ourselves...comes across as a social satire and as a rumpled portrait of some endearing oddballs." MOTIVATION FOR ME TO SEE: When new Dvds first appear on Bookspace, and a title could apply to more than one film, one might be putting in a reserve for something he/she normally would never order. I guessed this was the 1989 title, not the 2005 one, because Mike Leigh ("Happy-Go-Lucky" - 2008; "Vera Drake" - 2004; "Secrets and Lies" - 1996) is one of my favorite directors. And my guess, after the MARC display was filled in a few weeks later, proved correct. Yeah! MY THOUGHTS: No subtitling! Thick London accents of many of the characters (and they ARE characters) and rapid sentences meant I got only 50% othe wording. I still liked the movie, but it could have been so much richer. When I saw (or rather, heard) what I was getting into, I reread the NYT review; if I hadn't, I would have surely missed the name of one of Cyril and Shirley's cacti, just one of many sharp 1989 observations of this social satire. [New Purchase by HCL]

posted Jul 12, 2009 at 11:36PM

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