Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire,
Your children shall burn!
The dependable director Ken LOACH has crafted yet another fine tale of those who can't seem to get a firm grip on their lives that are spiraling out of control through unresolved flaws in their personalities.
Kenneth LOACH presents poor people as people and not as stereotypes. Blacks are also presented positively which, for a white filmmaker, is unusual. This, indeed, is his main contribution to cinema: Visual naturalism coupled with psychological realism. Most drama is psychologically unrealistic because it is stereotypical rather than archetypal. Attempts are made to politically and culturally pigeonhole fictional characters to give vent to the political positions of the writers; while little is done to elucidate human nature, as such. In Loach's work, the tail never wags the dog: Characters conform to archetypes and not our neurotic needs.
This is a difficult film to take because it deliberately focuses on a woman who is clearly unfit to be a mother. Yet we are required to empathize with her in her struggles to come-to-terms with her own abusive children, yet protect her children from her liking for abusive males. That Loach should flatter his audience's intelligence with a task so challenging is to be commended, and his style is certainly ingratiating, but this one thoroughly earns its 18-certificate through its analysis of the conjunctive nature of domestic violence.
Not a simplified view of reality - and all the better for it. Social workers are shown as being as ineffective at finding solutions to problems as the people with the problems. A childish parasite who was abused as a child and looks for abuse as an adult.
As usual with Loach, the naturalistic acting is first-rate in seeming to not be not so much acting as overheard conversations.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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