“I don’t understand you. But I love you.” These are key words said towards the climax of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, a somber slice-of-life film about two disparate sisters in a Black British family. Mike Leigh, a veteran indie darling known for letting his talented actors improvise, giving them time to build their characters, is back in his bag with this film. A reunion between him and his Secrets & Lies stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, Hard Truths follows two sisters, Pansy and Chantelle, in London. One sister is an easily irritable woman who complains about anything and everything while the other is a jovial hairdresser who has empathy and concern for people, including her nay-saying, depressed, older sister. Mike Leigh is a master of showing humanity bare on screen — the good, bad and the reality of it all. This is a film about two sisters, one angry and one happy, but it’s the root of the former’s anger that exemplifies the film’s theme of the hard truths we confront when we face trauma and generational pain.
As this is a home release review, be advised that there will be narrative details explored moving forward.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy in HARD TRUTHS. Photo Courtesy Bleecker Street.
Character work is where this film shines, particularly with the dynamic of Pansy and Chantelle. Within the character of Pansy, Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivers a masterclass performance of pain, PTSD-created anger, and repressed sorrow. Pansy is not a character that easily fits within the “angry Black woman” trope, instead she subverts it. This is a woman who’s not angry just to be angry, she’s in pain and she’s haunted. While we don’t learn until the film’s second half of what exactly haunts this woman (mild spoiler alert — it’s grief), we learn that such an intense rush of emotion is not hereditary as Pansy’s sister Chantelle provides a whole different worldview. Beaming with cheery light and immense empathy, Michele Austin’s performance of Chantelle counters Jean-Baptiste’s very well. Where Pansy is impatient, Chantelle is patient; where Pansy is grumpy and pessimistic, Chantelle is sweet and optimistic. “Some sisters are close. Some sisters confide in each other,” a statement Pansy says to Chantelle as Chantelle braids her hair. Pansy complains about her and her sister not being close but, again, this is just one thing among others that Pansy likes to complain about. As she carries out different activities like shopping for a new sofa or going to the doctor or the dentist, Pansy always find something (or someone) to complain about. In contrast, Chantelle speaks with her clients, listens to their problems with empathy (including her sister) and tries her best to enjoy life and take it easy.
L-R: Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy and Michele Austin as Chantelle in HARD TRUTHS. Photo Courtesy Bleecker Street/Simon Mein. © Thin Man Films Ltd.
To further highlight the differences between the two, one need look no further than their own households. Pansy lives in a neat, tidy space with her laconic, wooden-faced husband Curtley (David Webber) and her quiet, despondent adult son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett). While the space itself is clean, the environment is suffocated with Pansy’s ramblings and complaints, all while her husband and son hang their heads down and look away. In Chantelle’s household, living with her successful adult daughters Kayla (Ani Nelson) and Aleisha (Sophia Brown), there is laughter and love. Such a comfy heaven/clean hell contrast between the sisters isn’t explained (or justified) until a key scene at their mother’s gravestone where Pansy tearfully unloads about trauma from taking care of their mother (“older sibling” pain) and in return, Chantelle tearfully listens and embraces her complex older sister. Another strong performance to note alongside Jean-Baptiste and Austin is David Webber’s (Captain Phillips; The Children Act) turn as Curtley. As Pansy rants and raves, it’s the quiet anger and discontent on Webber’s face that says a thousand words. He carries the face of a man who is tired, he is the apathetic inversion of his wife. Their scenes together are both darkly funny and disarmingly heartbreaking as this is a couple that is indeed tired — the husband being tired of the wife and the wife tired of life.
L-R: Ani Nelson as Kayla, Michele Austin as Chantelle, Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy, Tuwaine Barrett as Moses, Sophia Brown as Aleisha, and David Webber as Curtley in HARD TRUTHS. Photo Courtesy Bleecker Street/Simon Mein. © Thin Man Films Ltd.
Hard Truths doesn’t deliver much in the plot department. The film is full of vignettes, mostly following around Pansy and Chantelle, while taking slight detours with their family members as they go about their day. Mike Leigh’s films, specifically ones that are slice-of-life (Meantime; High Hopes), are not for everyone. As Gary Yershon’s signature somber score carries the transitions, the fly-on-the-wall view of these characters and their lives gives this film its indistinguishable identity. For those willing to take the jump with stories that have great character development, terrific performances, and powerful themes of love being stronger than grief, this is the ideal film. Though the film ends on an emotionally ambiguous note, there is nothing ambiguous about this film’s theme of continuing to carry hope in the face of personal adversity or the hard truths we just can’t shake.
The film’s Blu-ray release is standard. The film is shown in High Definition with DTS-Dolby Digital 5.1 and English and Spanish subtitles.
Available on VOD and digital February 11th, 2025.
Available on Blu-Ray February 25th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Bleecker Street Hard Truths webpage.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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