On December 6, 2024, 'Hard Truths' is scheduled for release by Bleecker Street, earning rave reviews and currently holding at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, "Legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us. Reunited with Leigh for the first time since multiple Oscar-nominated Secrets and Lies, the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. Meanwhile, her easygoing younger sister, played by Michele Austin (Another Year), is a single mother with a life as different from Pansy's as their clashing temperaments -- brimming with communal warmth from her salon clients and daughters alike. This expansive film from a master dramatist takes us into the intensities of kinship, duty, and the most enduring of human mysteries: that even through lifetimes of hurt and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family." But what did the critics say?
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com says, For the first half of “Hard Truths,” Pansy is a tornado of Karen-esque encounters as Pansy unrealistically yells at salespeople, cashiers, and anyone else who dares look at her wrong. It’s almost a counter to Leigh’s masterful “Happy-Go-Lucky”—call this one “Angry-Go-Lucky”—but then the curtain drops when Pansy’s sister insists they visit Mom’s grave on Mother’s Day. The following scenes allow Jean-Baptiste to dig into a deep emotional well that goes surprisingly unexpressed. This is a woman who won’t stop talking when she’s mad but cannot find the words to express her sadness. Pansy is a pretty awful human being to strangers and her family. Still, Leigh and Jean-Baptiste struggle to find compassion for someone with so much emotional baggage that all that can escape the weight of it all is anger. I understand the intent of the relatively vague ending—it’s no spoiler to say that Leigh is uninterested in a tidy emotional wrap-up—but I still don’t think it quite lands like the best of his films. However, that feeling could change on repeat viewing—the man’s works often reveal more the second and even third times around. And the streak continues; after all, Mike Leigh doesn’t make bad movies." Adding, "Jean-Baptiste is breathtakingly good, and it’s so nice to have Leigh back on the dramatic scene. He’s essential to it."
Jon Frosch of Hollywood Reporter notes, "If the matter of why Pansy’s family puts up with her haunts Hard Truths like an unsolved mystery, Leigh allows glimmers of an answer by the time the film draws to a close: Pansy may be a nightmare, but in her howling, despondent way she’s also a life force. And in Jean-Baptiste’s brilliant turn, one detects the possibility — remote, yet distinct — that beneath all this woman’s fierceness and fury is a kind of fierce, furious love."
Michael Sicinski of In Review Online writes, "Mike Leigh, one of cinema’s last great humanists, has chosen to remind us that bitterness consumes everything, and that it is impossible to love others until you find the strength to heal."
Nadia Dalimonte of Next Best Picture praises the film, stating, "Jean-Baptiste is the magnificent core Leigh orbits around to reach the stars. Full of humor and sorrow, her vigorous performance prioritizes the character’s humanity in every scene. Rather than concern herself with trying to make the character “likable,” Jean-Baptiste fully embraces her temperament without apology. She deftly navigates from alienation and cynicism to regret and hopefulness (even if for a glimmer). What makes Jean-Baptiste’s performance especially compelling is her balance of the dichotomy in Pansy’s self-expression. She readily confronts the people, places, and things that trouble her. However, she has difficulty voicing why she feels the way she does. The pain of not knowing haunts her. Jean-Baptiste also exercises incredible comedic timing while not abandoning the tinges of sorrow that are part of her."
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| Photo by Elena Takmakova on Unsplash |
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