Review of High Hopes

Introduction

Mike Leigh has a reputation for doing things his own way. He usually arrives on set with a cast who fully know their characters after an exhaustive rehearsal period in which they play the scenes over and over until, when the cameras roll, the dialogue has an improvisational and natural feel to it. `High Hopes` is no exception, the rehearsal period lasted 15 weeks and Philip Davis even worked as a motorcycle courier and in the Post Office, to fully immerse himself in the character of Cyril. Similarly, Lesley Manville and David Bamber frequented Harrods to absorb the mannerisms of the yuppie Boothe-Braines.

The story follows three couples, Cyril and his girlfriend Shirley, his sister and brother-in-law, Valerie and Martin Burke, and Rupert and Laetitia Boothe-Braine. Cyril`s mother locks herself out of her house and is reluctantly taken in by Laetitia Boothe-Braine awaiting Cyril or Valerie to come and let her in. Meanwhile, Valerie and Martin are preparing a surprise birthday party for her.

Video

A decent fullscreen transfer with satisfactory colours and contrast.

Audio

The 2.0 mono soundtrack is unspectacular, but does the job in what is a dialogue-driven film with no use for surrounds.

Features

Much of the supplementary material is text or still images, with the Original UK Theatrical Poster, a Stills Gallery (which has to be manually navigated), the Original Production Notes, Synopsis and Original Biographies. There is a brief retrospective interview with Mike Leigh about High Hopes and the short High Hopes `On Set` News Footage feature.

Only the short interview is really worthy of attention, but I felt slightly short-changed by its brevity.

Conclusion

As with `Abigail`s Party` and `Secrets and Lies`, nothing much happens in `High Hopes`, the films represent everyday life, where people sit around, talk, get locked out of their houses and go about their mundane business. The meat of the film is in the dialogue, the characters and the interaction between them. As such, the scene in which Shirley`s sister calls round and speaks with Cyril and Shirley seems unimportant, but what is said tells you everything about the state of Socialism in 1988 and leads on to a later discussion between Cyril and Shirley about whether to have a child.

`High Hopes` was Leigh`s first theatrical film after making TV movies and contributions to the acclaimed `Play for Today` series, but it doesn`t lose the intimacy that was such a feature of his previous work. He is unapologetic about the Boothe-Braines being caricatures, they are hideous people, but are based on a real slice of 1980`s society, as are the dreadfully consumerist Burkes.

This is arguably an attack on Thatcher`s Britain by Mike Leigh, who makes no secret of his political views and what he sees as the effect Tory policies had on the populace in the `80s. It also stands up as a historical record of that era.

The seven actors are all superb and they look and sound realistic, but then they should, after rehearsing for 15 weeks. Anyone who appreciates Mike Leigh`s work will enjoy this film, which is recommended.