All or Nothing — All or Nothing(Blu Ray)

All or Nothing is a 2002 British drama by acclaimed writer/ director Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Naked and Another Year) starring a host of familiar faces including Timothy Spall (Mr Turner, Harry Potter and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet), Lesley Manville (Maleficent, Phantom Thread and Secrets and Lies), Ruth Sheen (Run Fat Boy Run, Vera Drake and Another Year) and in smaller roles Maxine Peake (The Theory of Everything, Shameless and Funny Cow), Mark Benton (Anna and the Apocalypse, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and Early Doors) and a very young James Corden (Peter Rabbit, Trolls and Cats). 

All or Nothing, like many of Mike Leigh’s films, is a brutally honest look at the everyday lives of working-class families in London. The film follows the lives of three separate families through their various trials and tribulations. Taxi driver, Phil (Spall) and his partner, Penny (Manville) are quiet, decent people who live a joyless existence with their children, Rachel (Alison Garland), a care home cleaner and their aggressive, lazy, unemployed son, Rory (Corden). The second family consists of Maureen (Sheen), who works with Penny at Safeway, and her daughter Donna (Helen Coker) a waitress in a restaurant. Our final family consists of Ron (Paul Jesson), who works with Phil as a cab driver, his alcoholic wife, Carol (Marion Bailey) and their unemployed daughter, Samantha (Sally Hawkins). 

Their lives are filled with misery, their relationships are tired, abusive or just downright dysfunctional and in the case of Phil and Penny, the love they once felt for one another has eroded to such an extent they are going through life on autopilot. All or Nothing is a grim, depressing watch, however, it remains realistic for its time. Life in London’s low-income housing estates could be hard and the temptations of alcohol and drugs are appealing to the young who have little to no prospects. Mike Leigh’s film offers little hope for the families, but like the best of his films, it was designed to work as a wake-up call to our elected officials by drawing attention to the issues affecting the working class in Britain.

Overall, All or Nothing is a bleak masterpiece, a difficult film to watch and an honest slice of social realism. At the end of the day, it’s a film about a family that has lost its way and needs a reset, but they are trapped in a world that refuses to give them a chance to do that. The characters are genuine, and as anyone brought up on a council estate, or in low-income housing will tell you, they have their basis in reality. Spall and Manville are superb in the lead roles as Phil and Penny, the parents trying to keep their sanity while everything around them falls apart. The rest of the cast is great too, giving strong realistic performances, even James Corden, a man not noted for his acting skills gives a more than solid performance as Rory. Mike Leigh excels at making us think, and All or Nothing is a great example of his craft. The disc from Severin looks great, the images are sharp and crisp and the colours are natural and clear. The bonus material included on the disc consists of interviews with director Leigh, cinematographer, Dick Pope, and several cast members.