Mike Leigh delivers a raw and timely domestic drama in Hard Truths. A fiery Marianne Jean-Baptiste leads a superb cast.
Writer and Director: Mike Leigh
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Run Time: 97′
BFI London Film Festival Screening: October 14-20, 2024
U.S. Release Date: January 10, 2025
U.K. Release Date: January 31, 2025
Where to watch: In US theaters and UK & Irish cinemas
Hard Truths is one of those great Mike Leigh titles, brief and to the point. It could be interchanged with Naked or Secrets & Lies, and still get the point across. Leigh is not an ostentatious filmmaker. His films are economical in form, but rich in emotional content. Like its title, Hard Truths promises simple honesty, couched in a recognisable suburban milieu, and told by a cast that has crafted their characters with Leigh to make them as real and relatable as possible. After the overambitious Peterloo, it’s good to see Leigh come back to small scale filmmaking to tell an up-to-date story of malaise and regret.
She might be named for a delicate flower, but Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is anything but. From the moment she wakes up (usually from a nightmare), she’s on edge all day. Finding fault in everyone and everything she encounters, she lashes out at anyone who does even the slightest thing to irritate her Shop staff, medical professionals, even the birds on her driveway; no-one is safe from the venom of Pansy’s diatribes. Her ramblings are reminiscent of Johnny’s verbosity in Naked, another character who uses his words to keep people as distant as possible.
Some of Leigh’s most memorable leads are defined by the intensity of their emotions, and Pansy joins the likes of Johnny, Cynthia in Secrets & Lies, or Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky as a character whose intensity could alienate a casual viewer, but as reasons for her isolation start to become clear, her anger turns out to be indicative of something else. Jean-Baptiste is simply astounding as Pansy. Her disgust and disdain is never in doubt; contrast this role to her patiently lovely Hortense in Secrets & Lies, and you’d wonder where she could find such levels of apoplexy.
Hard Truths is the first film Leigh has made since the Covid-19 pandemic, and he pointedly sets the film in that context. When we’re introduced to Pansy’s sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) in her hair salon, her customers make references to the hardships they endured in the pandemic lockdowns. We are familiar with the antisocial tendencies those extended periods of isolation have fostered in some people, and this is clearly the case for Pansy. Dick Pope’s glistening cinematography looks too polished at first, but it turns out to reflect Pansy’s germaphobia, keeping her family home spotless, but not allowing anyone in the home to enjoy it.
As Leigh pulls back the veil on Pansy’s apparent depression, he also makes a point of investigating how it affects the people around the depressive. The unsung heroes of Hard Truths are David Webber as Pansy’s husband Curtley, and Tuwaine Barrett as their son Moses. Their roles are much less showy, but both convey deep oceans of pain in their physicality.
Amidst the pain of Pansy’s side of the family, Chantelle and her own brood keep Hard Truths from sliding into out-and-out grimness. Austin is a delightful yin to Pansy’s raging yang, and Chantelle’s jollity has spread to her daughters Aleisha (Sophia Brown) and Kayla (Ani Nelson). As the young women discuss job prospects and their social lives with their mother, their joy is infectious, and a sharp contrast to the woes of their relations just over the road. Leigh’s method of workshopping his characters with his cast from a general outline pays off dividends again. They locate the relatable aspects of the characters to keep them empathetic, no matter what they get up to. As Pansy alienates even the doctor and dentist who are looking out for her health, she’s still someone we know and have likely encountered in our own lives.
True to form, Leigh’s character-driven narrative lends Hard Truths an episodic feel that only gradually builds to its climax. In a Leigh film, this is not a criticism. Reality moves at a similar pace, and the veteran writer-director is committed to telling real stories in as cinematic a way as he can within these tangible spaces. His mastery of blocking, movement and camera moves remains undimmed in its unshowy patience. For a famously grumpy man, he remains committed to the emotions of the characters he has created.
What is also true to Leigh’s way of viewing the world is his refusal of easy answers. After the ‘hard truths’ of the title are imparted, he delivers an ending of quiet power, one that leaves the characters with choices to make, and which the audience will make hypothetically in their head long after it’s over. Hard Truths was never going to sugarcoat its truths, and its leading lady can be a lot to cope with, but its truths are universal. Hearing that honesty from a stellar cast, and captured by a director on top form, is always worthwhile.
Hard Truths is currently being screened at the BFI London Film Festival. The film will be released in US theaters on January 10, 2025 and in UK & Irish cinemas on January 31.
