Another interesting film from Mike Leigh although I have my criticisms. This one looks at the sad and emotionally distanced life of a group of English working-class families. Indeed, my big criticism is that it is so bleak that it’s impossible to imagine people living through this without blowing their brains out. The women are sooooo beaten down, the men leading such pointless lives driving cabs for the middle classes, ripped off by fares, the girls growing up with no hope, the boys eating, fighting, drinking, and abusing their girl friends as a way of life. The main couple examined are a large and unsuccessful cabby and his small pretty, birdlike supermarket cashier wife. They have a boy and girl, both obese, angry, depressed, the girl cleaning up at an old age home, the boy with nothing but fried egg sandwiches to his name. This is a sad film, but the real keys are their quest for love, the emptiness that is so real, and the poignant desire of the man to regain a life that is lived with love. Their teenage son’s heart attack (!) forces the two to confront their distance and the sadness they live in and bring to their lives and those of their children. Can they change their lives?. It’s “All or Nothing”. Yes, there is a melodramatic tone here, its not “Secrets and Lies” or “Topsy-Turvy” or my favorite, “Life is Sweet,” but it is a good if depressing film. And to imagine that this is all improvised by the actors is simply beyond belief. Both Bronwen and I were impressed with Leigh’s use of the normal looking. Compare that with “The Rookie” or any other Hollywood film, where everyone is gorgeous and a hardbody