agree with a bunch of these comments, life can be sweet without it being perfect.i loved the way the perception of the characters changed as you learnt more about them. knowing mike leigh's style you can be sure that when wendy tells nicola that she gave up university to have her children and says 'You didn't know that did you?', jane horrocks certainly wouldn't have the first time they acted it.what didn't occur to me later is that although life can be sweet even despite the many difficulties that all families have, there is a tender double meaning for nicola. by excluding her family and relying on her chocolates, life can still stay sweet, but in the most temporary and most bitter way.i felt so optimistic at the end that they will come out of it all stronger together. upbeat, but as far from a Hollywood ending as you can get.

A sublime slice of ordinary life from Mike Leigh. He takes us through 5 days in the life of a London family: Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman and their twin daughters Claire Skinner and Jane Horrox. What follows is by turns touching, hilarious and unsettling. Leigh is often compared to Ken Loach, but Loach deals with unspeakably grim and often melodramatic scenarios. The far more impressive gift of Leigh is to make tales from the apparently unremarkable. So many touches run true here; Steadman doing a little dance to herself alone in the kitchen, Broadbent and Stephen Rea drunkenly reciting the Spurs Double side, Skinner describing an arthritic old woman met on her plumbing round. And the tragedy of the film is also unveiled naturally and feels horribly believable.The performances are also astonishing. Broadbent and Steadman, both distinctive actors, can descend into parody but here are just hugely enjoyable. Skinner is nicely deadpan but the star is Horrox, playing a twitching wreck of a girl who mainly communicates in one word insults. Little wonder she's been given so many chances to prove her talents subsequently, just a shame she's never taken them. The only false note is Tim Spall as a manic chef. Perhaps that's because he's simply put in for comic value (he was far better in Leigh's 'Secrets and Lies'), his character given none of the depth which lights up the rest of the film.

Whoever wrote the late review missed the boat on this one - 'another boring film from mike leigh', 'i can tell you no such dialog ever did, or ever would take place' - rubbish! This is a very real, moving film. Don't let the plot premise put you off - life in the day of 'typical' english, dysfunctional family of four - the characters develop at slow-burning pace while we watch on at fly-on-the-wall distance. Alison Steadman's character in particular. I initially judged her as a rather silly woman who would giggle at anything, but as the film progresses you see how good a mother she really is, what she does for her children, how she has made sacrifices for them and communicates with them. If people have seen this as a negative film, I hope they reconsider, as, for me, it shows how life is sweet, despite of and because of all the dysfunction of the family.

Another reviewer has commented that this could be a fly-on-the-wall documentary rather than fiction. That hits the nail right on the head. I live some 5 miles from Enfield (where Life is Sweet was filmed) and this is completely true to life. No car chases, no martial artists, no expensive explosions, just life going on and (in the main) being fairly sweet. Everybody knows a Patsy who has a "little deal", everybody knows families like this one, everybody knows an Aubrey who never *quite* makes it. Mike Leigh knows what he's talking about, and it's enough to make a highly enjoyable movie that's worth seeing many times. I don't fancy Aubrey's "Saveloy on a bed of Lychees", though!