Mike Leigh lightens up
Mike Leigh’s last film, Vera Drake, was a study in saintliness, with Imelda Staunton as a do-gooding back street abortionist in post-war, pre-liberated London. His new film, Happy-Go-Lucky, is also about the milk of human kindness, which runs through the veins of a cheerful, jokey primary school teacher played by the effervescent, miraculously funny Sally Hawkins.
The film doesn’t open here until April, with a European film festival premiere in Berlin in two weeks’ time. But without preempting the critics, it’s safe to say that Leigh is back in primary colour mood, and the central relationship between the daffy teacher and her bonkers driving instructor — a brilliant, pent-up performance by Eddie Marsan, the sheepish neighbour in Vera Drake — is going to become a classic in the Leigh catalogue.
At a special weekend screening I sat next to Matthew Warchus who astonished me with his workload. He still keeps an eye on Lord of the Rings, of course, but he’s also directing Speed-the-Plow at the Old Vic, the new Yasmina Reza, The Carnage of God, with Ralph Fiennes, and preparing Boeing-Boeing with Mark Rylance for Broadway.
And just so he doesn’t take it easy when he gets home, he and his wife, Lauren Ward, last seen on stage as the svelte baroness in The Sound of Music, now have a four-year old, a two-year old — and one more on the way.
Matthew was keen to support the film, but also to check on the work of his regular collaborator, composer Gary Yershon, whose score is a carousel of colour and high spirits. Leigh never hides the music in his films. Yershon told me afterwards that there’s about thirty-five minutes worth in the two-hour movie, so he’s not complaining.
Nor were the audience, who gave the screening a resounding ovation. They even burst into applause at the end of a hilarious flamenco dance instruction sequence, with the teacher consumed in a fury of Spanish anger and theatricality.
Apart from Hawkins and Marsan, other actors to watch out for include Trevor Cooper with a bad back, Sylvestra Le Touzel with a Spanish shimmy and newcomer Joseph Kloska (currently playing the smug student in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour) as a social worker with a six-pack.
Kloska only graduated from RADA in 2006, so he’s certainly got off to a flying start. Many of the Leigh repertory company turned out on a sunny Sunday morning: Brenda Blethyn, Tim Spall, Mark Addy, Phil Davis, Alison Steadman.
On my way to the cinema, I happened to track Spall with his wife Shane as they meandered through Leicester Square. Tim was recognised by almost everyone they passed, but no-one pestered him, just gave a warm smile in his wake. He must now be one of the most popular and well-loved actors in Britain, one of our newest national treasures, I’d say.
