Yes, yes, we can all ham it up with our perfectly curated online selves, but no matter how much we post and pose, there's an inescapable truth for us all: everybody's family is a clown car.
The latest writer-director to put this fact on film is the inimitable Mike Leigh, a legend who knows his way around the human condition the way London cabbies do The Knowledge. Here, Leigh is reunited after almost three (gulp) decades with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and the results are as satisfyingly funny, bittersweet, and sad as fans could want.
Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a Londoner who would give Jack Nicholson's As Good as It Gets character Melvin Udall a good run for his money. She's lethal with the put-downs of loved ones and strangers alike, is doing hard time inside her own head, and closing off more and more of the world outside by the day. Pansy's sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) wants her to visit their mother's grave on Mother's Day - and Pansy is having none of it.
The belly laughs here at watching Jean-Baptiste's character being absolutely no-filter with everyone eventually give way to something more profound as we empathise with the person whose flamethrower default is burning her more than it is anyone else. It's a brilliant performance by the stage and screen veteran, and in one particular scene, you'll swear that she's shrinking before your very eyes.
As for the supporting cast, they're all perfect for their roles, but there are a couple of scenes that feel somewhat superfluous because Jean-Baptiste isn't on screen - she's so special that you want her in all of them. Any chance we could call around to Pansy's again in the not-too-distant future? Things might be looking up...
If there's a messier business than life, no one has told any of us what it is - and Hard Truths doesn't mess around in living up to its title. This is a film to leave you humbled, grateful, and a little bit kinder than when you sat down in the cinema.
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