High Hopes (film)
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High Hopes | |
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Directed by | Mike Leigh |
Produced by | Victor Glynn Simon Channing-Williams |
Written by | Mike Leigh |
Starring | Philip Davis Ruth Sheen Edna Doré Philip Jackson |
Distributed by | Skouras Films (USA release) |
Release date(s) | September 24, 1988 |
Running time | 112 min |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
All Movie Guide profile | |
IMDb profile |
High Hopes is a 1988 film directed by Mike Leigh. The film is about a working-class family living in King's Cross, London.
The film centres around the couple Cyril (Philip Davis) and Shirley (Ruth Sheen), a motor-cycle courier and his girlfriend, and their friends, neighbours and family.
Cyril is a strong, old-style socialist who despairs of his working-class but Tory-voting mum, her yuppie neighbours, his social-climbing sister and her crass, car-salesman husband. Despite staying true to Leigh's down-at-heel realist style, the film is a rather knockabout comedy about the culture clashes between the different classes and belief-systems on display.
Cyril and Shirley are portrayed as the most decent characters in the film despite Cyril's irascibile nature. Theirs is a strong relationship, marred by Cyril's resentment that his cause is destined to be on the losing side in history.