Marianne Jean-Baptiste rages against Hard Truths in bold, biting drama
Mike Leigh cuts his familiar elements to the bone in this prickly but rewarding film about family and loss.
Photo: Bleecker Street
In 2008, filmmaker Mike Leigh released Happy-Go-Lucky, a bright and breezy comedy (as alluded to by its title) that still managed to have the occasional dramatic bite. Hard Truths provides the antithesis, a film about sisters that plays as an unsettling social drama full of tears, bitterness, and familial consternation, but also contains a dash of humor that makes it far more than just about the dourness of a grieving daughter.
Leigh’s films are filled with deeply realized characters, quotidian situations that manage to feel epic, and exquisite interplay of dialogue that feels extremely casual but, of course, is deeply calculated on the page before a frame is shot. Despite Hard Truths’ somewhat claustrophobic interior settings, Leigh along with his long-time cinematographer Dick Pope use subtle camera movements and clever compositions to keep even the most austere spaces engaging.
Just as Leigh’s proclivity for chamber piece-like narratives is well known, his ability to showcase supreme acting talent is equally legendary. Here the main focus is on Marianne Jean-Baptiste in an astonishing turn, a wild and explosive character realized with multiple layers of nuance that lay sometimes hidden amongst the wild rantings. Oscar-nominated for Leigh’s 1996 Palme d’Or winner Secrets & Lies, Jean-Baptiste plays a force of nature, mining a deep vein of acerbic misery.
Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, the mother to the taciturn Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) and married to his henpecked father Curtley (David Webber). Pansy’s proclivity for confrontation is unrelenting, be it in the confines of her home or in the checkout line at a grocery store. It’s a character that could easily become tiresome, a two-dimensional ranting bulldozer, laying waste to all those in her path. Yet there’s a deft sophistication at play, small nuances that both Jean-Baptiste and Leigh’s camera capture, from the fear in her eyes when she recognizes she’s gone too far to the shameful joy when she feels she’s truly humbled her prey with yet another rapidfire salvo of invective.