Meantime (1981)

Mike Leigh's poignant Meantime seethes with an undercurrent of rueful rage, and shows the talented director developing a visual style to complement his facility with character and dialogue. The film doesn't have much of a plot. Leigh's subject matter is hopelessness in contemporary England, and the heart of this strong little film is the odd relationship between the two brothers, the glum, lonely, slow-witted Colin (Tim Roth) and the bitter, sarcastic, and verbose Mark (Phil Daniels). The brothers are brilliantly cast. In addition to being talented actors, they have a distinct physical resemblance. Mark, with his painfully sharp wit and nihilistic world view, is somewhat similar to Johnny (David Thewlis) in Leigh's seminal Naked, but with a sweeter soul. Daniels gives a terrifically edgy performance as the prototypical "kitchen sink" antihero, with a quick mind and no intention of finding a positive use for it. Tim Roth is also outstanding, investing his character with inner life, and refusing to compromise the reality of Colin's disability and his environs to gain audience sympathy. Marion Bailey is also notable as the upwardly mobile Barbara, whose ability to trade quips with Mark masks a painful lack of self-awareness. The supporting cast is good all around, including Gary Oldman as an ineffectual skinhead, who doesn't quite have the courage or the malice to lash out in his powerlessness. The family's estate manager (a deft comic turn by Peter Wight) inadvertently sums up Leigh's aesthetic with a silly Zen-like analogy about handling his tenants problems -- "It helps if you tell us about the grain of sand. Don't wait to tell us about the anthill." The fascinating, meandering Meantime, like much of Leigh's work, is decidedly "about the grain of sand," but the film's bittersweet ending still packs a surprising emotional punch. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide