High Hopes (1988)

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1. 

   CynInFlicks

   Mike Leigh IS England. 9 years 11 months ago
2. 

   MilenaFlaherty

   By the year 2000, there will be 36 stations 24 hours a day telling you what to think. 2 years 11 months ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   What Mike Leigh manages in High Hopes is to drawn a comedic picture of class warfare in Thatcher's Britain, by slyly sticking to characters who actually aren't that far apart in the class system. We follow three couples who have an old woman with undiagnosed Alzheimer's connecting them. Her son and his girlfriend (a lovely and magnetic Ruth Sheen) are working class, not to say working poor, and though they rant against the class system, they are without a doubt the most comfortable "in their place", reaching for working class ambitions and finding contentment in the little things. I love their relationship. Then there's the daughter whose husband has his own business and she fancies herself upper middle class, but she's a terrible poser. The actual upper middle class neighbors are too, but you have to wait for the film to lift the upper crust enough to see it. One of the film's explorations is just how one's place in the class structure affects one's capacity for empathy and charity, and boy were the political and social discussions still relevant to today. I did at times feel some of the more extreme characters were caricatured, but the theme of "posing" actually does cover that rather nimbly. 3 years 8 months ago

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