The films of Mike Leigh have often focused around difficult people. Leigh has made a career of exploring the lives of off-kilter and abrasive individuals who confound, frustrate and exasperate the people around them. Characters such as Nicola in Life Is Sweet (1990) or Cynthia in Secrets & Lies (1996) are unstable people whose confrontational outbursts shield them from the world around them and put a barrier between them and their families. The genius of Mike Leigh is in his empathy for these characters, in his ability to explore the social and familial context which produces such a person and in his unwillingness to condemn or punish them. Often, Leigh's difficult people are presented not as freaks to gawk at or villains to condemn, but as real people in need of help that they are unwilling or unable to receive.
In Hard Truths (2024), Leigh introduces us to Pansy, brilliantly portrayed by Leigh's Secrets & Lies collaborator Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Pansy is highly anxious and inimical. She has a steadfast belief that everyone in the world is out to get her, including her meek husband Curtley (David Webber) and quiet, autistic son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett). SPOILER#The film plays as several episodes in Pansy’s life surrounding the anniversary of her Mother’s passing, during which time she gets into heated arguments with service workers, doctors and her own family, accusing them of racism, rudeness and disrespect.#SPOILER The way that Leigh and his longtime cinematographer Dick Pope shoot these scenes is deceptively plain, presenting each of these situations exactly as they are, seemingly without metatextual evaluations of Pansy’s actions or character. Leigh's willingness to portray a character like this exactly as they are without punishing or admonishing them is a sign of his deep empathetic ability as a filmmaker, as is his ability to twist our frustration with them for maximum emotional impact.
SPOILER#The film revolves around a scene where Pansy and her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) are mourning at their Mother’s grave on the anniversary of her death. Pansy insists that Chantelle received preferential treatment and expresses a fear that her own family hates her. This moment of vulnerability from a character whose guard is constantly up is superbly acted by Jean-Baptiste, whose affect subtly shifts after this scene; from a heightened, combative hostility to an almost confused shrinking away from the world around her, driven by a repressed desire for love and acceptance. The final moments of the film see Pansy freeze completely after Curtley injures himself at work, unable to cope with being asked to sincerely care for someone for the first time in the film. Leigh has always been an actor’s director, but Jean-Baptiste’s turn as Pansy might just be the best performance he’s ever directed.#SPOILER
As an artist who has dedicated over half a century towards portraying the quotidian nightmares and triumphs of the British working and middle classes, it is stunning that Mike Leigh continues to produce such fresh and exciting work. Hard Truths is a film which builds upon the style and themes which Leigh has been honing for so many decades, but still feels uniquely pitched towards our current moment. A towering achievement for both Leigh and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.