Review of Career Girls (1997) by Jeremy S — 14 Nov 2009

Career Girls (1997) I have been watching all Mike Leigh films one by one. By urging his performers to improvise during rehearsal, he allows them to assist in the creation of their own characters. I like his films and am watching all of them.

This film focuses heavily on character and dialogue instead of plot, and will delight some audience members while completely boring others. The film is a time-jumping tale of an enduring friendship between two insecure female schoolmates.

It's Leigh's mode of operation to introduce us to people whose company we're not sure we can endure for the next two hours, and then craftily win our sympathy. Two college chums who reunite and re- evaluate their lives after a six-year separation.

The film allows its cast, as all Leigh's films do, the chance to dig deeper and show us areas of human experience that most filmmakers never touch. Career girls: opens with a train journey towards London's Kings Cross where Annie, one of the major characters is about to meet her old university friend Hannah.

She recalls moving into a gritty student flat with Hannah in the mid-eighties. In those days Annie was self conscious and jumpy. The pair has not seen each other since graduation. They both now have moderately successful careers and are, at least on the surface, self assured in their new lives.

However, they are still carrying a lot of emotional baggage from their university days. During the course of a weekend they rediscover their close friendship and encounter many faces from the past. Not every misfit makes it through the trials of youth in one piece, and even Annie and Hannah carry scars they can't, and shouldn't, forget.

With "Career Girls," Mike Leigh almost reaches the sheer greatness of his 1995 picture "Secrets & Lies," even though this movie does not have the conventional plotting like â??Secretsâ?? The performances of the two leads is nearly always excellent, with the two leads giving it all they've got in semi-spontaneous roles.

The performances of Katrin Cartlidge and Lynda Steadman are rock solid. The cinematography and use of colors is fantastic. There is lots of humor in the film (not exactly comedy) Leigh's often improvised, raw films can be off-putting if you're unprepared.

His films realize that for most people, most days, life consists of the routine of earning a living, broken by fleeting thoughts of where our efforts will someday take us--financially, romantically, spiritually or even geographically.

We never arrive in most of those places, but the mental images are what keep us trying. Leighâ??s movies have not been big hits worldwide, but they are great movies. I compare him to USAâ??s Woody Allen they are both cultural icons WRITING AND DIRECTING their own films with no studio interference.

I salute both of them!! (Though their movies are very different in style.) Some reviewers panned this movie I disagree. Mike Leigh has made one of his most modest pictures, although one that offers quite a few laughs and other quirky pleasures.

He gives us a vibrant two-character portrait with a strong mix of comedy and poignant drama. Itâ??s a short film 90 minutes which does not wear out its welcome (as some overly talky movies do). Simplicity here is Leighâ??s best asset.

I love Mike Leigh films they have a breath of realness rarely found in film. Leigh reminds us that movies can be about what it means to be alive in this world, right now, surrounded by real people -- not just offer fantasy thrill rides through celebrity land.

Recommended with a strong Four Stars.