Three Reasons: Life Is Sweet
May 24, 2013
This invigorating film from Mike Leigh was his first international sensation. Melancholy and funny by turns, it is an intimate portrait of a working-class family in a suburb just north of London—an irrepressible mum and dad (Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent) and their night-and-day twins, a bookish good girl and a troubled, ill-tempered layabout (Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks). Leigh and his typically brilliant cast create, with extraordinary sensitivity and craft, a vivid, lived-in story of ordinary existence, in which even modest dreams—such as the father’s desire to open a food truck—carry enormous weight.
| Andy | Jim Broadbent |
| Wendy | Alison Steadman |
| Natalie | Claire Skinner |
| Nicola | Jane Horrocks |
| Patsy | Stephen Rea |
| Aubrey | Timothy Spall |
| Nicola’s lover | David Thewlis |
| Paula | Moya Brady |
| Director | Mike Leigh |
| Written by | Mike Leigh |
| Produced by | Simon Channing-Williams |
| Director of photography | Dick Pope |
| Edited by | Jon Gregory |
| Music | Rachel Portman |
| Production designer | Alison Chitty |
| Sound recordist | Malcolm Hirst |
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION: