Hard Truths (2025)

Mike Leigh, seasoned veteran of a hard hitting British drama returns to the (sort of) kitchen-sink sub-genre with Hard Truths, a film that shares some DNA with Mean Time (1983), Leigh's made for TV second feature. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is wonderful as Pansy, a frequently bed-ridden housewife who's angry at the world and everyone in it; estranged from her husband Curtley who's been vocally beaten into silence, and more heartbreakingly her twenty-two year old son Moses- who spends most of his time in his room eating and playing video games- venturing briefly outside where he simply walks- just to get away from it all, despite being accosted by bullies.

Hard Truths isn't an easy watch, neither would you expect it to be. Pansy is incredibly difficult to like or understand- and even though Leigh has outwardly expressed that this isn't a 'post-covid' film, the idea that Pansy was greatly affected by being shut up indoors during a potential pandemic and is subsequently scared to venture out- means that Pansy's behaviour does at least make a little more sense.

Her anger and belittling of almost everyone she comes across can become tiresome despite some laugh out loud sequences that Leigh offers us (most notably one in a car park), and although we do eventually feel some sort of understanding towards Pansy, there is a lot overwhelming negativity and hopelessness to get through.

The only person who seems to be able to get through to Pansy or indeed have any sort of a loving relationship with her is her sister Chantelle, who is tender and willing to put up with Pansy's depressing outlook whilst also being concerned about how bad things have got. They're polar opposites; Chantelle's flat that she shares with her two daughters is filled with laughter and love; Pansy's is pristine and silent (except when she's shouting) as Curtley and Moses do everything to simply stay out of her way.

It's clear Pansy is incredibly troubled and wasn't always like this, but a lack of desire to help herself combined with a want to push everyone away who tries to help renders a near solution almost completely untenable. Leigh offers us hopeful glimmers however, and Pansy isn't a terrible person- she's simply a long way down a hole that she slipped into some time ago.

Which means that we're not in such bleak and dark Leigh territory as the almost unbearable dank (but brilliant) Naked (1993), in which David Thewlis' Johnny is a truly hateful character with practically no redeeming features. But Hard Truths also isn't as hard hitting as Naked, meaning that although it's an admirable piece of film making, it doesn't quite have the same heft as something like Naked, or even Mean Time. The performances are terrific though, and for Leigh- a national treasure- the fact that he can churn out something so solid- if not perhaps vital- at this late stage of his career is admirable. 7.3/10