All or Nothing

You know, I've seen alot of excellent films in my life, but All Or Nothing is a perfect film. The story was so wonderfully moving and touching, the direction flawless, but the collected performances in this movie are the best I've ever seen....and I mean from every single member of the cast. I was completely and totally awestruck by the quality of the acting. Thirty minutes into this film, I felt the strongest identity with each of the characters and my heart actually ached for them. There is so much truth and honesty, so much clarity, that I feel gifted just to have seen this movie and I will remember it the rest of my life. Absolutely fantastic!!! If this is the only drama you will ever see, do yourself a favor and let it be All Or Nothing.

"All or Nothing" is a very, very tough film to watch. Many of the characters are unlikable and the rest just seem very sad...and rather pathetic. It's still worth seeing, however...despite its many, many problems. The story is about a lower working class family in London and, to a lesser extent, the families around them. Director Mike Leigh did a good job recreating this oppressive and anger-filled environment...and the acting is top-notch because it's so realistic. But seeing the folks being cruel to each other again and again wears on the viewer. In fact, I think editing out a bit of this would have made for a better film. So why did I still like it despite all this? First, when a crisis comes to the family, it also creates the possibility of change and growth...not pie in the sky and unrealistic changes but ones that are indeed possible. Second, during this crisis towards the end of the film, the acting is at its finest. Not a perfect film...but worth it for the finale.

The previous reviewers describe the story's chemistry adequately. But why all or nothing? Contrary to the other comments I did not find the protrayal dreary or depressing. To do so seems to me to show a lack of awareness of the people who live and work near us or for us; who breathe the same air we do. These people don't live in a slum or a housing development. They live in their homes. They do not portray, as in too many other movies, special effects empty violence or emotionless skin sex scenes. They beg us to consider and respect the lives they really live and their search for the fuel to continue tomorrow. They don't need everything; they don't need it all. They simple need enough to enable their emotional existence, that's all; otherwise they have nothing. "All or Nothing" finally arrived in Honolulu where there are people with dialects different from London and yet have the very same vacancies in their lives. I vote to clone Director Mike Leigh!!

Mike Leigh makes this movie as a sociological study because he wants us to be confronted with the state of mind of the working class of now. There is more poverty in the slums nowadays than say twenty years ago! Family-life is disrupted and children have many problems: overweight, sexual harassment, abortion (?). How will the rent be paid? And the loan of the taxi? What is going on in the mind of our son who does only look television and eat until he becomes fat? Why is my woman unhappy, do we still talk to each other? We are proud of our daughter who is a nurse for elderly people, but what is happening with our son? Even the dialogues in the taxi are splendid!

This film is worth a hundred others because it is not an exercise in making a product and marketing it successfully- instead it is a statement by a man who is a true director, someone who feels passionately about the world we live in, and uses this fantastic medium to its highest potential. The film is ultimately about a man (Phil, Timothy Spall) who has philosophized about life to the point where nothing matters to him anymore. The only thing that brings him back around the world of the living is (the only thing any of us really need for happiness)... Love. For me, that is one of the most pertinent and beautiful things that someone with a voice in society can say. P.S. It is highly likely that if anyone found this film 'too depressing' than they are not really primed to expect anything other than the beauty and predictability of hollywood film. And in response to the chap who refutes the existence of such misery in the real world: you are obviously a lucky, privileged chap.

"All or nothing" was typical Mike Leigh. The acting was superb and the characters were realistic. His movies are more like a documentary than a screenplay. I become involved with the characters and I continue to think about them and their lives for a long time afterwards. The characters in this movie led bleak, sad lives. The small amount of happiness at the end of the movie isn't enough to overcome the bleakness of the story. I can't see how these people in the surroundings they live in and associating with the types of people portrayed in the movie could work their way out of their plight. Rory and Rachel are doomed to live in this bleak place. See, I get all involved with these characters. I think they are real. That is the power of Mike Leigh's films. This is a sad movie, an affecting movie. Ruth Sheen was the one bright spot, plus she has a lovely voice.