Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

rodrig58 First-class actors, emotional performances, storytelling as real life, the subject being the mistakes we commit and that we have no courage to assume, recognize, correct. Impeccable direction, effective filming, everything is narrated with great grace, in short, a film jewel, but attention is a very sad story.

chaz_grgry this is hands down the worst film I've watched in the last two years. 50 minutes past before the girl even met her biological mother. another hour passed before you could find out what happen. how can a fully black girl have a white mother. if the girl is meant to be mixed race then the casting people must be clueless. on top of this film doesn't even have a plot. do the filmmakers think that depicting someone crying a lot and showing the British version of depression is a story line? or that they are depicting something that your average person doesn't already understand. this film has no right to be over 2 hours and certainly no business having an 8 star rating. don't waste your time if u have anything worth doing with your day.

Galea Maily Life isn't perfect, people aren't perfect either, they are sometimes annoying. We might forget it and think our life is crap, with all the films that we can see at the cinema. Always perfect characters, brave, pretty, even when they cry, but nobody is pretty when they cry, etc... For once it is not the case in this film ant it makes me feel relieved. The characters are sometimes annoying, like Cynthia with her hysterical crises, but it makes them more human, realistic. A few weeks ago, I met Timothy Spall ( who plays Maurice) with my high school and he told us about the process of Mike Leigh's creation of characters . The actors worked a lot improvising the scenes to build up their character's personality traits. That is why their performances were so great, they perfectly embody their characters, it is impressive. This film is breath-taking by its realism, I've loved that. I've also liked Mike Leigh's way of filming, like the scene at Maurice's workplace at the beginning, when he tries to make is clients smile, that was well filmed. It is really an Oscar-worthy movie, I totally understand why it won a prize. But there were two scenes which annoyed me though. It was with Monica. The fact, that she is represented as the perfect housewife who cleans the room and cooks is very sexist I think. I mean, Maurice's and Monica's couple were too much a representation of the « traditional couple » to me. And the scene where she is angry because she has her period was so cliché ! Despite these scenes I've loved that film, and I highly recommend it, to people who want realism in movies. I really want more films like that one.

Jackson Booth-Millard In the career of Oscar BAFTA nominated director Mike Leigh (Abigail's Party, Vera Drake, Another Year) this was the film that became his biggest box office hit, it features in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was definitely going to watch it. Basically Hortense Cumberbatch (Broadchurch's Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a black middle class woman who works as an optometrist in London, she was adopted as a child and has chosen to trace her family history and find her birth mother, she is warned about what could happen when trying to contact lost relatives, but she continues her investigation. Cynthia Rose Purley (BAFTA and Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Brenda Blethyn) is a white working class woman who lives with her daughter Roxanne (Carrie & Barry's Claire Rushbrook), who works as a street cleaner, and despite an awkward relationship often visits her brother Maurice (BAFTA nominated Timothy Spall), who works as a photographer and lives with his wife Monica (Downton Abbey's Phyllis Logan). Hortense is baffled to learn that her birth mother is a white woman, it is Cynthia, she meanwhile has had an argument with Maurice, once he has left Hortense rings Cynthia and asks to speak to "Cynthia Rose Purley, referring to baby "Elizabeth Purley", born in 1968, Cynthia is shocked to realise she is talking to her long- lost daughter. Cynthia initially hangs up the phone, but Hortense calls back and is determined to find out more about her background, she convinces Cynthia to meet her outside a tube station, they go for a cup of tea, looking at documents Hortense shows her Cynthia feels ashamed, and cannot talk about the birth father. After a while Cynthia and Hortense have formed a friendship, Roxanne notices her meeting a black woman often, but Cynthia is secretive about who she is, she mentions the birthday party for Roxanne to her and invites her, with Maurice's permission accepted, despite thinking it will be awkward Hortense agrees. The day of the birthday barbecue arrives, Hortense posing as a work colleague, Monica makes everyone feel welcome, Cynthia makes open comments about Monica making improvements on the house rather than giving Maurice a child, and Maurice suggests to Roxanne going to college, she does not take this seriously, and while Maurice prepares the food Hortense answers questions from the guests about her career and future. Roxanne blows out her birthday candles, Cynthia becomes exceptionally nervous, she lets slip that Hortense is her daughter, everyone dismisses this as a drunken comment, but she insists it is true, and Roxanne walks out angry and horrified at her mother, Maurice finds her at a bus stop and calms her down. Maurice convincer her to return and talk to Cynthia, who apologises profusely, she explains she became pregnant at fifteen and the father sent Hortense away for adoption, she never expected Hortense to come back. In the heat of the moment Cynthia accuses Monica of being selfish, Maurice reveals that she is physically incapable of having children, they have gone to various doctors and therapies in the past, but she cannot conceive a child, he then loses his temper, stating he tries to make people happy and cannot take it anymore. Hortense has sat back and watched these secrets and lies unfold, Maurice stops her from leaving, he admires her for courage trying to find her own past, he does know who her father is, but will not reveal it either, Cynthia then explains to Roxanne that her father was an American medical student who disappeared following a holiday to Benidorm. In the end a while has passed and things have calmed down, Hortense is free to visit Cynthia and Roxanne at their home, Hortense says she always wanted a sister, Roxanne says that she would be happy to introduce her to people as her half-sister, in spite of the long explanation that comes with it, and the three of them gather at Cynthia's for a cup of tea. Also starring Elizabeth Berrington as Jane, The Bill's Michele Austin as Dionne, EastEnders' Lee Ross as Paul, Lesley Manville as Social Worker, Ron Cook as Stuart, Bridget Jones's Diary's Emma Amos as Girl with Scar, The Bill's Brian Bovell as Hortense's Brother, Trevor Laird as Hortense's Brother, EastEnders' Clare Perkins as Hortense's Sister-in-Law, Elias Perkins McCook as Hortense's Nephew, Big Brother's Keylee Jade "Shabby" Flanders as Girl in Optician's, EastEnders' Nitin Ganatra as Potential Husband, EastEnders' Stephen Churchett as Man in Suit, Coronation Street's David Neilson as Man in Suit, Abigail's Party's Alison Steadman as Dog Owner, The Royle Family's Liz Smith as Cat Owner, Calendar Girls' Angela Curran as Little Boy's Mother, Philip Davis as Man in Suit and Another Year's Ruth Sheen as Laughing Woman. Blethyn is fantastic as the emotional white woman who's past comes back to haunt her, Jean- Baptiste is great as the black woman longing to find out about herself, and Spall and Rushbrook give impressive supporting performances. The storyline of the black woman finding her white birth mother is interesting, the highlight is them talking in the café, and the other secrets and lies from other characters are good as well, this is essentially a razor-sharp observation of life in suburbia, full of melancholy, it is more about the characters interactions than the storyline, overall it is a must see British drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Mike Leigh, it won the BAFTAs for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film and Best Original Screenplay, and it was nominated for Best Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama. Very good!