Hard Truths ★★★½

NEAR the top of the list of actresses who can play any part has to be Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

While most at home in tough and uncompromising dramas, Jean-Baptiste has popped up in a myriad of roles and genres over the past three decades.

Her recent performance in Mike Leigh’s latest film Hard Truths won her almost every major critics’ acting award for 2024.

It’s a deeply affecting performance in an equally strong film, that also marks a full circle for director and star.

One of Leigh’s earliest and best films, Secrets and Lies released in 1996, featured Jean-Baptiste in a key supporting role, but I don’t think they have worked together until Hard Truths, and again the result is one of Leigh’s best.

Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy Deacon, one of the most frustrating characters for an audience possibly in the history of film.

But by the end of Hard Truths such is the power of the performance and script, you will completely understand Pansy and maybe even want to warmly embrace her.

Pansy lives in a nice home on a working-class, outer suburb of London with husband Curtley, a plumber, and their young adult son Moses who is unemployed and lacking any ambition.

Pansy doesn’t work and cares for the home which she keeps immaculate, mainly because she is so fastidious. She is also depressed to the point where she loathes going outside and engaging with other people.

On the occasions venture to the shops or elsewhere, Pansy is impatient and hyper-critical of almost everything and everyone and enters arguments at will.

This includes Curtley and Moses on a daily basis as well as her long-suffering sister Chantelle. Such is the quality of writing and performance, your frustration is interrupted by many laugh out loud moments.

In the lead-up to Mother’s Day a series of events slowly reveal the journey that has brought Pansy to this moment in life.

Both Leigh and his counterpart Ken Loach are masters of the British under-stated domestic drama and it’s compelling to watch how well the onion is peeled away to present a plea to accept the differences and understand the circumstances that impact every individual and family in different ways.

Jean-Baptiste is backed by excellent performances from Michele Austin as Chantelle, David Webber as Curtley and Tuwaine Barrett as Moses.

The final scene is beautifully done.

Watched on Apple TV.