DVD Review: High Hopes: Philip Davis, Ruth Sheen, Edna DorÃ©, Philip Jackson, Heather Tobias, Lesley Manville, David Bamber, Mike Leigh: Movies & TV

Jun27

DVD Review: High Hopes: Philip Davis, Ruth Sheen, Edna DorÃ©, Philip Jackson, Heather Tobias, Lesley Manville, David Bamber, Mike Leigh: Movies & TV

Posted by admin | on 27 June, 08:09 AM

Product Description

A film by six-time Oscar® nominee Mike Leigh

Academy Award® nominated writer/director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) dissects the barriers of class in this daring and compelling black comedy set during Thatcher’s England.

Cyril (Philip Davis - Vera Drake) and Shirley (Ruth Sheen - Run Fatboy Run) are a young, working-class couple who, in their struggle to make ends meet, have become absorbed in socialism. Cyril’s sister Valerie (Heather Tobias - The Palace) and her husband aspire to a more privileged class. The only glue holding the siblings together is their withdrawn and wistful old mother (Edna Doré - The Bill). While the country faces social discontent, each of these characters fights for their own version of survival as the world around them plummets rapidly into an era of political upheaval and confusion.

WINNER / FIPRESCI Prize / Venice Film Festival

WINNER / Peter Sellers Award for Comedy Mike Leigh / Evening Standard British Film Awards

Long overdue to region 1 DVD!,

By Bob Rousseau (Seattle, WA United States) -

I’ve been waiting for “High Hopes” to appear as a Region 1 DVD for a long time. It’s the film that introduced me to Mike Leigh’s films some 20 odd years ago, and what a glorious adventure it’s been! The fantastic ensemble cast includes long-time Leigh actor Philip Davis as an aging leftist motorcycle messenger trying to grapple with a mother who is heading towards probable dementia, a girlfriend who wants to have children while he himself isn’t sure children should be brought into the world, and a nouveau riche sister who is all about style over substance. While it’s been argued that the affluent characters in the film are presented with less dimension than the others, Leigh doesn’t hesistate to portray the leftist characters as baffled about how to turn words into actions. This film is also another example of Leigh’s amazing talent for chronicling family dysfunction which he continued to utilize in later films like “Secrets and Lies”. His work is so realistic that sometimes it feels more like you’re watching a documentary rather than a piece of fiction. This piece is well worth your time!
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