This expansive film from a master dramatist and legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to familiar ground with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets and Lies) gives an exceptional performance as Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way.
The contrast between Pansy and her easy-going younger sister Chantal, who brims with communal warmth, provides a backdrop to the way that we still find ways to love those we call family.