Hard Truths

We’ve all had those days when we feel like raging against the hand the world has dealt us and the people we’ve encountered. For Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) that’s every day - even if she doesn’t leave the neat and ultra-clean suburban home she shares with her husband Curtley (David Webber) and young adult son Moses (Tuwaine Bennett).

As the Sex Pistols sang, “anger is an energy”, and it’s the one thing Pansy can harness. She’s tired, she tells everyone - and wakes with a start every time she is resting - so her annoyance feels like her last defence against the world. Her state of mental health and attitude are in sharp contrast to that of her hairdresser sister Chantelle (Michele Austin, radiating positive energy at the same wattage as Jean-Baptiste channels the bad equivalent). The warmth of Chantele’s household with her daughters Kayla (Ani Nelson) and Aleisha (Sophia Brown), who like their cousin are in their early twenties, with its soft furnishings and clutter is in opposition to Pansy’s, locked-off shots of which from cinematographer Dick Pope emphasise it’s cool emptiness.

It’s funny to begin with, watching Pansy rant with no filter, sharing her negative thoughts on everything from baby clothes with pockets to sofa salespeople, but gradually we realise just how close to the edge she is. Chantelle realises it too, with a pressure point day on the horizon, repeatedly trying to edge closer to her sister.

Everything hinges on Jean-Baptiste - who was previously lauded for her work on Leigh’s Secrets & Lies. She puts in a tragicomic tour-de-force here, pushing the comedic element of Pansy’s tirades to the max but always letting a mixture of more complex emotions follow behind like a ripple effect. The plot is straightforward, largely focused on the interactions family’s have that can go emotionally either way, leaving more room for the characters to hold sway.

Leigh and his cast - who, as with all his films have built their characters and plot from the ground up - pay attention to the details and the edges. Moses may be taciturn - and pretty much tuned out of the family - but his body language around his mother runs the gamut from frustration to empathy and resignation. Even when a character is only encountered briefly in Chantelle’s hairdressers or a row over parking, they feel as though they have a life that exists outside the frame. If there is one false note here, it’s Samantha Spyro’s turn as Kayla’s unpleasant boss, pushed to the limit in a dispute over coconut oil that’s also pretty hard to believe, it also fits a bit too neatly into a narrative slot.

Nothing is neat about the way Pansy is breaking, however, and the shards of what’s left are so sharp everyone around her risks getting cut. Still, Jean-Baptiste and Leigh put us into her shoes until we feel the shape of her life and her difficulties deeply. Love may not conquer all at the first attempt but we can see that despite everything, the real deal endures.