High Hopes

British writer/director Mike Leigh has concocted a delightful (and occasionally quite wicked) satire on contemporary London. Cyril (Philip Davis) and Shirley (Ruth Sheen) are a pair of working-class hippies who argue about having a baby and make the obligatory visits to see Cyril's mom (Edna Dore) who is approaching her 70th birthday. Cyril's sister, on the other hand, is cut from a different piece of cloth altogether--she and her husband are crass yuppies who live in the suburbs. These five characters--without much of a plot to guide them--provide for one of the most genuinely entertaining two hours to be had on video this year. Cyril and Shirley, in particular, drift from one gentle, comic situation to another: in one scene, for example, they visit Marx's grave, where Cyril tries to work up the proper reverence, while Shirley (a tree planter for the city) comments on the flowers around the grave. The acting is so good, and the characters so distinct--yet reassuringly familiar--that by film's end, you feel as if you could guess these characters' opinions on a whole range of topics. Or, to put in another way, they feel like friends. The British accent is liable to slow a few people down, and the infrequent nasty barb aimed at Margaret Thatcher might raise a few eyebrows, but this little gem is well worth it. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review—June 23, 2009—BFS, 109 min., not rated, $24.98—Making its first appearance on DVD, 1988's High Hopes features a nice transfer, but no extras. Bottom line: a welcome DVD debut of an early winner from the director of Happy-Go-Lucky.]