Life Is Sweet

Mike Leigh's situation comedy about a lower middle-class family in the London suburbs is a slice-of-life chronicle that subtly reveals the pain and rage underneath the surface of day-to-day conventions. The youngish parents, Wendy (Alison Steadman) and Andy (Jim Broadbent) live with their ...more

"Devised and directed" by Mike Leigh, Life is Sweet (1991) concentrates on the small epiphanies, humorous eccentricities, and poignant failures that mark an oddball working-class family's quotidian existence in a London suburb. Working with extensive rehearsals and improvisations rather than a pre-prepared screenplay, Leigh and his cast focus on telling details of behavior and dialogue, revealing the full complexity of the relationships through the haphazard rhythms of daily life. Leigh's simple ...more