High hopes (1988)

What does it mean to 'do something'? High hopes is one of the most heart-wrenching takes on political consciousness I have ever seen. Political consciousness? How can that be hear-wrenching at all? Well, in Mike Leigh's hands, this tale about class society and its psychological tensions is rendered into a soul-searching odyssey. What is more: Leigh's film manages to be existentially penetrating and damn funny at the same time. I have a difficulty in putting into words how much this film moved me: something about its perspective on the two leading characters - a rather lazy thirty-something couple - trying to come to terms with their lives and society just hit a chord.

Cyril and Shirley: two people trying to figure things out. Should they have a child? But most acutely: what to do with Cyril's old, apathetic mother? This couple live in a dingy flat. They clearly love each other - the tenderness between them is moving (how unusual such tenderness is in films!). He's a motorcycle messenger. His sister, however, lives in a posh part of town with a bratty husband (he sells cars and has sleazy affairs). The two couples are very different, of course, and High hopes gears into high comedy when their realities clash. Cyril and Shirley are rather dreamy types who enjoy a cozy life at home. But then - the mother. She lives in a council flat and well, there's her neighbors, an outrageous yuppie couple. These neighbors are surely caricatures in the film, but in some way, that really works fine: the serious and reflective tone of some of the scenes nudge against a much loonier, crazier tone that brings out the absurdity of the seemingly ordinary and mundane.

The question being asked is often: how can we live in this society? Cyril and Shirley are people who are feeling a bit bad for not doing enough, not being active enough. Cyril makes fun of their friend's feminist-socialist speeches. She angrily retorts: so what do you do? He quietly blurt out: I sit on my arse [as a matter of fact, even thinking about this scene brings tears to my eyes]. In another scene - a sweet moment - we see Cyril bemoaning the state of the country standing before Karl Marx' grave. Then a group of buoyant Japanese tourists enter the scene and the serene spell is broken. What makes this film so good is that it is not pessimistic. Leigh does not set out to scorn a class of bohemian leftists who are too lazy to really care, nor does he set out to scorn the naivety of the well-to-do people who care more about creating the perfect flat than they care about society. The film focuses on lots and lots of dissonance and despair - but it also deals with people who care about each other and who cannot help caring, even though they perhaps would not like to. It also takes a look at people who like not to care - the posh people living next door to the mother - but who end up confronting these horrible poor people anyway.

This theme - confrontation as encounters - is brought to the fore from the very start. A young and inexperienced country boy arrives in London. He bumps into Cyril and Shirley. They try to help him finding his way, and end up taking him in for the night. They are hesitant about inviting the youngster to stay, but somehow that's the only thing they can do.

High hopes is not only good because of its dialogue and its acting. Let's not forget the way Leigh fills gray London with life: the shabby row houses and the dreary window-views are mediated with a loving eye. Then there's the satirical edge that works magic also with clothing and interior design. Simply: Mike Leigh also gets the details right for the mood of the film.