The renowned English director paints a provocative portrait around his 'Secrets & Lies' star, giving Jean-Baptiste the role of her career, but also a particularly compelling story to play in.
HARD TRUTHS – Official Trailer – Directed by Mike Leigh and starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Some people bring happiness and positivity into the world, brightening the lives of everyone around them, and others cause flowers to wilt and milk to curdle wherever they go. As Pansy, Marianne Jean-Baptiste embodies the latter in “Hard Truths,” reuniting with “Secrets & Lies” director Mike Leigh with her richest character yet — not economically, of course, though we’d all be millionaires if we had a dime for every burning complaint that flows from Pansy’s lips.
“Hard Truths” arrives more than 50 years after Leigh’s first film, “Bleak Moments,” which capped a career of hard-hitting, direct looks at working-class British life. To be honest, that vaguely wordy title seems more fitting for a Criterion Collection box set of his work than for his latest (but hopefully not last) feature. A return to intimate kitchen-sink realism after the grandeur of several relatively expansive period pieces — “Topsy-Turvy,” “Vera Drake,” “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo” — the film offers little more than a hint of plot to accompany its prickly but honest micro-portrait of an epically unpleasant wife and mother.
From the moment Pansy wakes up (usually with a gasp of pure panic), the world seems to be her torment. Beware, everyone in her path, because Pansy picks fights with just about everyone she encounters, from the well-meaning supermarket cashier to the cautious dental hygienist. She hurls insults at complete strangers, sizing them up in the blink of an eye before unleashing her insults (most of which are hilariously on point, as if she were writing for "Veep" or some other Armando Iannucci show). Pansy's misanthropy can be disarmingly funny, though it's clearly much easier to laugh at such a person on screen than in her presence.
