Ray Pride

I like to think movies can get you to change something besides the channel. Mike Leigh's "All or Nothing" packs the kind of devastating emotional wallop that reminds me why movies are made, why art is made, why I do what I do. And: what we lose by leaving love unspoken. Uncompromising, rich with a sorrowful empathy, "All or Nothing" eschews irony and tactical emotional distance, to ask, directly, what does it mean to live with dignity? And to effortlessly bestow that on others and not scar them with our spite, our own limitations? Leigh's latest may be his best, a skillfully calibrated, beautifully designed and acted film about ungenteel lives in a downtrodden part of southeast London. (The gifted actors include Leigh stalwart Timothy Spall as a worn-down cab driver, Leslie Manville as his long-suffering mate, Alison Gordon and James Corden as their pained post-adolescent kids, as well as half a dozen other unforgettable turns.) Like Lars Trier, Leigh struggles, with startling results, to find a way into art and the heart. I'd hate to think that "All or Nothing" would be difficult going for some viewers, based on a hideously ill-behaved preview screening on Monday night. A batch of supposed adults in late middle age moaned, groaned and chattered like children at a birthday party who discover their clown doesn't speak their language. How could they not see that Leigh's eighth theatrical feature, often profane, is a brilliant, melancholy masterpiece of empathy and hope. Yes, the sun does shine one day. If you are not moved to tears at film's end by the wash of nurturing morning light on the sweet, fragile face of Lesley Manville, you have a heart of stone. But if you care about serious moviemaking, you should see "All or Nothing" this weekend.

"All or Nothing" opens Friday. I>

(2002-10-30)

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