A Way of Life

Although theoretically descended from Britain's “kitchen-sink dramas” of the 1960s, this dreary offering is too heavy on social realism and too light on compelling narrative. Sharp-witted, spirited Leigh-Anne Williams (Stephanie James) lives in squalor but is determined to create a better life for her baby daughter Rebecca—even by amoral means. Leigh-Anne is feuding with both her disapproving grandmother Annette (Brenda Blethyn) and her Turkish neighbor Hassan (Oliver Haden), who bears the brunt of her hateful, bigoted outbursts. Debut director Amma Asante has made a raw and intermittently moving drama about life on the wrong side of the South Wales tracks, but Leigh-Anne is such a thoroughly reprehensible character that it's all but impossible to feel sympathy for this young woman, which throws the movie seriously off-kilter. In addition, James overplays, and the normally pleasing Blethyn struggles to maintain her Welsh accent from scene to scene. A harrowing finale offers the requisite emotional jolt, but by that time many viewers will have lost interest in Leigh-Anne and her travails. Not a necessary purchase. (E. Hulse)