"So let's get a few things straight here shall we? You don't work for us, you work with us. Keep this happy. This decides who lives and who dies" (Ricky gets his first taste of what it will mean to be a courier driver for corporate U.K.- it's all in the electronic scanner).
Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake), once again, holds a mirror up to his fellow Brits to show where all the warts and welts exist in the corners, so often forgotten, in the U.K.
Fresh from his success with I Daniel Blake, Loach takes us on an even darker journey, into the domestic and working lives of the Turner family. We just know these likable people, dad Ricky (Kris Hitchen), mum Abbie (DebbieHoneywood), adolescent son Seb (Rhys Stone) and lovable daughter Lisa (Katie Proctor) are going to stretch our compassionate sensory glands to points of despair.
Ricky locks himself into self employment of the worst kind (franchise courier operator attached to corporate operator) working 14 hour days. Abbie, a contract nurse, busses from one homecare job to another. There are not enough hours in the day, no time for their kids and no money in the bank. The emotional stress pushes against the wall of what was once a giving, loving, fun family. The last 10 minutes rages at pace, on immediate viewing we sense little hope for the Turners but, look carefully, the hope is there, it remains in the walls of the home.
Loach sets the standard for film-makers in countries across the world. He shows life as it is for the forgotten underclass. These forgotten ones don't have the time or energy to stand-up for themselves. Loach keeps their stories flickering. I'm Australian, I wish we had a Ken Loach on our filmmaking landscape. 10GUMS.
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