Family Life

Like his harrowing Ladybird, Ladybird, this 1971 drama by Britain's Ken Loach is a raging gut-wrenching indictment of "the system," in this case the treatment of the mentally ill. Sandy Ratcliff gives a devastating performance as Janice, a young woman increasingly unable to cope with her stifling suburban existence and slipping inexorably into schizophrenia, a descent which spirals out of control when she becomes pregnant and her parents force her to get an abortion. After she's committed to a mental hospital, Janice makes progress working with a sympathetic psychiatrist, but when he is forced out by office politics, Janice's real nightmare begins (as do the shock treatments). Despite critical acclaim, the uncompromising Loach has not enjoyed the Secrets and Lies commercial breakthrough of countryman Mike Leigh. While it can't exactly be called entertainment, this angry and compassionate film is gripping and infuriating drama. Recommended. (K. Lee Benson)