All or Nothing

2002 Drama

After a rather decided departure with his 1999 homage to Gilbert and Sullivan, Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh returns to his usual form for All or Nothing, a melancholy look at the day-to-day lives of a dysfunctional lower-middle class British family called the Bassetts. Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville (familiar to fans of Leigh's previous films) star as Phil and Penny, a common-law husband and wife who toil their gloomy days away as a cab-driver and grocery-store cashier, respectively. When the couple come to realize the growing emptiness in their relationship, an unexpected emergency within their family brings them closer together and offers the possibility of reigniting the long-extinguished spark in their marriage. Hoping to repeat the Palm D'or win of Leigh's 1996 film Secrets and Lies, All or Nothing was screened in competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. more..

Director: Mike Leigh

Starring: Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, Alison Garland, James Corden, Ruth Sheen

Reviews

  • There are moments in All or Nothing of such acute observation that we nod in understanding -- The closing scenes of the movie are just about perfect.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    29 November 2012

  • Exquisitely textured film.

    Desson Thomson - The Washington Post

    29 November 2012

  • All the drinking, arguing and brooding, which in lesser hands might have produced oppressive and unvarying dreariness, somehow adds up to a tableau of extraordinary vividness and variety.

    Dana Stevens - The New York Times

    29 November 2012

  • Leigh isn't breaking new ground, but he knows how a daily grind can kill love. Strong stuff.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    29 November 2012

  • Leigh doesn't sentimentalize these tragic, dead-end lives but allows his characters to be ugly and stupid, to make horrendous mistakes. Sometimes they're laughable, and yet there's never the sense that Leigh is mocking them.

    Edward Guthmann - The San Francisco Chronicle

    29 November 2012

Awards

  • Best Actor

    British Independent Film Awards (2002)

     
  • Mike Leigh

    Cannes Film Festival (2002)

     
  • Best Feature

    Chicago International Film Festival (2002)

     
  • Best Director

    European Film Awards (2002)

     
  • Best Technical/Artistic Achievement

    Evening Standard British Film Awards (2003)