Meantime

The Pollack family--Frank (Jeff Robert), Mavis (Pam Ferris), and their sons Mark (Phil Daniels) and Colin (Tim Roth)--live in a rented apartment in a run-down building in London's East End. The men are all unemployed, which causes tension between the vociferous Mark and his frustrated father; to slow-witted Colin, it's all the same. They pay a strained visit to Mavis's sister, Barbara (Marion Bailey), at the suburban house where she lives with her husband John (Alfred Molina). Mark and Colin spend much of their time at the local pub, with friends like Coxy (Gary Oldman), a noisy skinhead and Hayley (Tilly Vosburgh), to whom both Colin and Coxy are attracted. Barbara comes by the Pollacks' apartment to offer Colin a job painting her house. While she is there, the superintendent (Peter Wight) stops by to examine a broken window. He and Barbara chat, sharing the same condescending attitudes toward the less fortunate. On Colin's first day of work, Mark goes by Barbara's house to visit him, only to find that he never arrived. When he does show up, he refuses to talk to either his brother or aunt, feeling that Mark is trying to steal his job (actually, Mark tried to talk him out of it, feeling that Barbara was patronizing him). After Mark leaves, Colin does too. He stops by to visit Hayley, who sends him away. When he comes home, he ashamedly refuses to take off the hood of his jacket; it isn't until the next morning that Mark discovers that he got his head shaved, in emulation of Coxy.

A plot summary isn't the proper way to describe MEANTIME, more a film of mood and atmosphere than story. Leigh captures a milieu where middle-aged men like Frank are horrified to realize that the dole has become a way of life for them, while younger men like his sons who have grown up with it don't know what else there is to hope for. The film was a substantial hit with young Brits, who had rarely seen their own situation depicted on film. It launched the careers of Tim Roth and Gary Oldman (whose pointlessly violent Coxy is an early version of his Sid Vicious in SID AND NANCY). Like all of Leigh's films and plays, it was devised though improvisational exercises in which the actors created characters based on someone they knew. (The film itself is not improvised: Leigh views the improvisations and uses them as a basis for the script he writes.) As such, it is a mixture of flawlessly played ensemble scenes and brief, often wordless moments, like Mavis at a bingo hall frustrated because none of her pens work, or Coxy rolling around in a trash can, beating his fists against its insides. (Adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment