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After the detour in the polished world of backstage musical in 1999 Jukas in Mike Leigh returned to a more natural territory with his new drama, all or nothing. According between stories of three families living in the same housing estate, Lee has developed a complex, moving portrait of working-class life and relationships.

With all three families have common problems associated with their minor children. Portly, timid Phil (Timothy Spall) drives a mini-taxi, while his young common-law wife, Penny (Lesley Manville), clerks at Safeway. The children, Rachel (Alison Garland) and Rory (James Corden), physically, after their father. Rachel, who works in the rest house, inherited her mother’s patience and a taste for hard work, while the jobless Rory shares his father’s indolence but seethes with militancy. While he expects his mother to cook his meals and clean up after him, the only thing he ever says it is “F ** to leave!”

Penny fellow at Safeway clerk, Maureen (Ruth Sheen) could soperezhivat with Penny maternal care, since her own daughter, Donna (Helen Coker), keeps it in the same contempt. Feel at fellow cabbie, Ron (Paul Jesson), it was even worse: daughter Samantha (Sally Hawkins) began indiscriminately pick up boys, while his wife, Carol (Marion Bailey), was both anorexic and alcoholic.

For all of these children has increased almost, and some are beginning to take on adult responsibilities, Lee captures these families just as they are on the threshold of change. This is particularly true of Phil, Penny, and their juveniles. Penny is a sick woman, but she had already tired of her husband’s sloth - he loses at profitable rates with its inability to get to the middle of the morning - and his unwillingness to deal with Rory. Feel the fear that their problems run even deeper, he is afraid that his entire family is threatened, an anxiety that crystallizes after a frank conversation with the imperious, dumb-passenger said.

This is not all darkness, there is one time when three wives - Penny, Maureen, and Carol - quit for the night on the town in the karaoke bar, where Maureen brings down the house with her rendition of Don ‘t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue ” . But for the most part, this is a story of survival, where Phil vow to get more fares so that the family can take to Disneyworld vacation is met with bitter mistrust of Penny. This is not because his track record shows that that there is no such thing, perhaps, but also the frivolity of the proposal. “It’s about getting through, day after day,” she counters with a stark honesty.

Once again, Lee is an example of why he is one of the best directors of people working today. This is one of an ensemble, it is not a weak performance up to the smallest parts. The basis for this group Spall. In longtime collaborator Lee proves once again why he is in such high demand, in the role of more than a dozen films over the past two years. His performance here as inarticulate people increasingly isolated in the private emotional crisis, refined, until the smallest Phil offhand gestures. Improvisational Lee, in collaboration with his actors pays off huge dividends in performances that are critical and correct.

All or Nothing is not always the easiest film to watch. Lee catches the rhythm of daily life, but it does mean that from time to time the story slows to a crawl, which can make for a long 128 minutes. But the actors so well, and family situations so convincing that sometimes-plodding pace easy to overlook. This film plays Lee strength in the production of virtual reality is almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

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