‘Hard Truths’ review: Dir. Mike Leigh (2025)
Mike Leigh re-teams with Marianne Jean-Baptiste – one of the stars of his much-celebrated ’90s drama Secrets & Lies – to bring another slice of contemporary drama that is equal measure funny and devastating – so very much a Mike Leigh joint then.
Set in North London, the film follows the relationship and lives of two sisters, Chantelle (Michelle Austin) and Pansy (Jean-Baptiste). The two couldn’t be more different, with Chantelle a jovial and out-going hairdresser and single mother to two equally out-going and charismatic daughters (Ani Nelson and Sophia Brown), while Pansy life is one filled with confrontation, anger and pain, sharing a home with her quiet husband Curtley (David Webber) and their isolated son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) whom Pansy often chastises for being a layabout.
While no condition is mentioned specifically, Pansy is clearly depressed while also exhibiting the behaviour of a hypochondriac, as well as severe anxiety. She is paranoid and quick to temper, often lashing out verbally to anyone who engages with her in the outside world, as well as those closest to her.
We meet Pansy literally screaming herself awake, making her instantly on edge and clearly not at ease with the world around her, with potential danger or something out to get her at every corner. Her home is spotless, precise and clinical, a stark contrast to the more cramped but homely space that we see Chantelle occupies with her two daughters.
Much of what has led to such two different sisters is alluded to within their recollections of their deceased mother, with Pansy’s behaviour having now left many of her closest relationships feeling as those they’re constantly walking on eggshells, resorting to silence for risk of upsetting her. She is a woman clearly at quite a desperate situation, where her condition has led to alienating herself form all around her, with the film entering a point in these characters’ lives where you feel everything is at breaking point – or perhaps has already has already past it.
Jean-Baptise is staggeringly good at conveying the freight mind that clearly pains Pansy even as she sets out on another verbal attack. This is a woman where it is all simply too much yet struggles to be any other way. One key scene at a Mother’s Day gathering, where her assumptions of her family’s feelings towards her are countered with a simple act of warmth from her son is incredibly powerful, thanks to Jean-Baptise’s raw and believable portrayal.
That strive for authenticity is often what drives Leigh’s very best works, and while some moments of character interaction here may feel a little on the nose at points, there is undeniably a sense of ease and effortlessness to the dialogue and dynamics on screen. Austin is equally as captivating as Chantelle, again for the different reasons that define the divide between the two sisters.
Related: Mike Leigh’s new film ‘Hard Truths’ gets a release date
It should also be noted that a lot of the dialogue and more casual observations made through the film, can be incredibly funny, particularly when focusing on Chantell’es life both at home and among the people in her job as a hairdresser. One of Leigh’s strengths as a filmmaker has always been in this deft balance act between trying to present something as raw and real, without veering too much into melodrama or feeling as though it is misery for the sake of misery. One of the key elements to that is humour, as is true to our messy human contradictions, we all often find something to laugh at even when we’re at our lowest point.
Hard Truths is another very successful piece of drama from Leigh that rings with his sense of genuine desire and effort to find something real to tap into in the lives of people you may walk past in the street without giving a second mind to. We never know what is going on in someone else’s life. Leigh’s work, particularly in this key, often reminds you of that fact with a note to remember to be kind and not to jump to conclusions. The empathy in the storytelling and in the performances makes Hard Truths, a very captivating, no-frills drama, that offers little answers and even less resolution to those titular truths, yet is rewarding all the same.
Hard Truths is released in cinemas on 31st January.
