Hornet Rating:

Staring Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, Alison Garland, James Cordon and Ruth Sheen

Written and Directed By Mike Leigh

Produced By Simon Channing-Willians and Alain Sarde

Distributed By MGM

128 Minutes

Rated R

If the choice is “All or Nothing”, choose nothing.

In present-day London, Penny Bassett (Lesley Manville, “Topsy-Turvy”), a supermarket checkout girl and her taxi-driver husband Phil (Timothy Spall, “Vanilla Sky”) have two older children and the pleasure is gone from their marriage. Eldest child Rachel (Alison Garland, “Virtual Sexuality”) cleans at a home for the elderly and “baby boy” Rory (James Cordon, “TwentyFourSeven”) is unemployed and aggressive. Both children are overweight and unbelievably unhappy. When a tragedy occurs, the family must come together to rediscover love.

They could have improved on the quality of the movie by focusing on the surrounding neighbors instead of the Bassett family. Their stories are much more interesting, and the film makers only leave you wanting more.

While the acting is amazing in this movie, some do the depressing script too much justice and leave the audience feeling as such. For instance, as Phil Bassett, Spall’s un-kept appearance and inaudible British mumbling is almost too much to take for two hours.The neighbors include Phil’s fellow driver Ron (Paul Jesson, “The Ploughman’s Lunch”) who is a filthy human being, Ron’s hyper-alcoholic wife, Carol, is played by Marion Bailey (“Don’t Get Me Started”). No one could have done a better job in this role. Their loose daughter, Samantha (Sally Hawkins, making her film debut) has an unbelievable affect on the neighborhood boy; it is actually quite disturbing. Penny’s friend Maureen (Ruth Sheen, “Virtual Sexuality”) is the normal one of the bunch. Along with being a divorcee, her daughter Donna (Helen Coker, “The House of Mirth”) is pregnant by her abusive boyfriend Jason (Daniel Mays, “Pearl Harbor”). Hollywood should grab these two British actors while they can; both are realistic and have a profound impact on the audience.

This is a depressingly dark British film about a family we should be glad to not belong to. It portrays the urban poor in a harshly realistic light. The film’s director, Mike Leigh (“Secrets & Lies”), goes for the quick fix ending which does not work. This is one movie I would pass over.