Play for Today: Home Sweet Home (1982)

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1. 

   Siskoid

   Mike Leigh's last Play for Today is the sarcastically-titled Home Sweet Home, a sad comedy about three postmen and their dysfunctional households - two couples you have a hard time imagining ever got together in the first place, and a father/estranged teenage daughter pairing (we never really understand why she's been put in foster care, which provides some tension). Working class status as a prison. Characters long for escape and get it where they can - trashy novels, sex, even routine - but like these relationships that feel like they were forced upon them, there's no getting out. And no real ATTEMPT to get out. The flirty wife teases, but doesn't commit. When cheating is exposed, the situation doesn't really change. And the father who gets consistent visits from social services doesn't seem to have much of a stake in what will happen. This is all about agency and feeling that one has none, letting things happen. And if we need to give the postmen an ironic turn, it's that they never completely get the message that they are making their wives/daughter unhappy. 1 year 2 months ago

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