SORRY WE MISSED YOU
*****
Director: Ken Loach
Screenwriter: Paul Laverty
Principal cast:
Kris Hitchen
Debbie Honeywood
Rhys Stone
Katie Procter
Ross Brewster
Charlie Richmond
Country: UK/France/Belgium
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 101 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2019
Previewed at: Dendy Newtown on 26 November 2019.
There’s a line uttered by a character in the latest Ken Loach film, Sorry We Missed You, that goes right to the heart of the movie’s subject matter. While listening to a carer talk about her day and learning that she starts at six-thirty in the morning and works until nine at night, the elderly woman asks indignantly, “What happened to the eight-hour day?” The veteran director, now 83, working with a script by his long-term collaborator Paul Laverty, has set his film in Newcastle, England, the same city that was the location for his film I, Daniel Blake, and it is almost a companion piece to that 2016 Cannes Film Festival Palm d’Or-winner. While the latter title examined the ramifications and impact of unemployment, this new film looks at the deleterious effects of the gig economy.
Ricky (Kris Hitchen) and Abby (Debbie Honeywood) are raising their two children, Seb (Rhys Stone) and Liza Jane (Katie Procter) in rented, fairly rundown, accommodation. They’re good parents who love their kids but, ever since they lost their savings in the global financial collapse, they’ve been struggling to save a deposit for a house of their own. Ricky’s been working in a series of jobs in the building industry - he can turn his hand to most things - but is sick of working for other people, so when a mate tells him there’s money to be made as a delivery driver, he’s up for it. The catch is that he won’t be employed by the company, he’ll be “the master of [his] own destiny,” as his new boss, Maloney (Ross Brewster), tells him. He just needs his own van and he’ll be paid by the job, so a hard worker like him should be able to rake it in. At least, that’s the plan. Abby is a care-worker, visiting elderly people in their own homes, and she too is paid by the job, so the more ‘clients’ she sees in a day, the more she earns. After Ricky convinces her to sell her small car to provide a down-payment on the van, she has to travel via public transport, thus making her days longer and her take-home pay smaller, so Seb and Liza Jane become virtual latch-key kids. Ricky’s day is ruled by a device known as a scanner, which manages the delivery process. It tracks the parcels, tells the driver what to do, what route he has to take, what time the package must be delivered, and so on, but it doesn’t allow for toilet breaks, traffic conditions, weather and other factors that can slow the driver down, so it’s a constant battle to keep up with the scanner’s demands. When Ricky gets hurt, he realises what he’s really signed up for. Not only is there no sick leave, he has to pay for every day he can’t work, and the family’s life starts to go off the rails.
Shot in a semi-documentary style, the characters are totally believable, so it’s not surprising to learn that the actors are largely drawn from working-class backgrounds themselves and have experienced the world in which Sorry We Missed You is set. It’s the first major role for all of them and they are extraordinary. You feel as though you’re a fly on the wall on the rare occasions when the family is together at home or when Ricky is collecting his packages at the depot in the early morning. Kris Hitchen, in particular, embodies Ricky and deserves to be acknowledged when the BAFTAs come around. Robbie Ryan, who has recently shot The Favourite and Marriage Story, has done a terrific job of capturing the hard-scrabble lives of these hard-working people who just can’t take a trick.
Sorry We Missed You asks, in Loach’s words, “Do we really want a world in which people are working under such pressure, with the knock-on effects on their friends and their family and the narrowing of their lives? This is not the market economy failing - on the contrary, this is a logical development for the market, brought about by harsh competition to cut costs and maximise profit. The market is not interested in our quality of life. The market is interested in making money and the two are not compatible.” His depiction of capitalism on steroids is bleak but brilliant. If you like your movies to provide food for thought, grist for your intellectual and emotional mills, rather than mere escapist novelty, then this great film is definitely for you. Like fine wine, Ken Loach improves with age.
Screenwriter: Paul Laverty
Principal cast:
Kris Hitchen
Debbie Honeywood
Rhys Stone
Katie Procter
Ross Brewster
Charlie Richmond
Country: UK/France/Belgium
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 101 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2019
Previewed at: Dendy Newtown on 26 November 2019.
There’s a line uttered by a character in the latest Ken Loach film, Sorry We Missed You, that goes right to the heart of the movie’s subject matter. While listening to a carer talk about her day and learning that she starts at six-thirty in the morning and works until nine at night, the elderly woman asks indignantly, “What happened to the eight-hour day?” The veteran director, now 83, working with a script by his long-term collaborator Paul Laverty, has set his film in Newcastle, England, the same city that was the location for his film I, Daniel Blake, and it is almost a companion piece to that 2016 Cannes Film Festival Palm d’Or-winner. While the latter title examined the ramifications and impact of unemployment, this new film looks at the deleterious effects of the gig economy.
Ricky (Kris Hitchen) and Abby (Debbie Honeywood) are raising their two children, Seb (Rhys Stone) and Liza Jane (Katie Procter) in rented, fairly rundown, accommodation. They’re good parents who love their kids but, ever since they lost their savings in the global financial collapse, they’ve been struggling to save a deposit for a house of their own. Ricky’s been working in a series of jobs in the building industry - he can turn his hand to most things - but is sick of working for other people, so when a mate tells him there’s money to be made as a delivery driver, he’s up for it. The catch is that he won’t be employed by the company, he’ll be “the master of [his] own destiny,” as his new boss, Maloney (Ross Brewster), tells him. He just needs his own van and he’ll be paid by the job, so a hard worker like him should be able to rake it in. At least, that’s the plan. Abby is a care-worker, visiting elderly people in their own homes, and she too is paid by the job, so the more ‘clients’ she sees in a day, the more she earns. After Ricky convinces her to sell her small car to provide a down-payment on the van, she has to travel via public transport, thus making her days longer and her take-home pay smaller, so Seb and Liza Jane become virtual latch-key kids. Ricky’s day is ruled by a device known as a scanner, which manages the delivery process. It tracks the parcels, tells the driver what to do, what route he has to take, what time the package must be delivered, and so on, but it doesn’t allow for toilet breaks, traffic conditions, weather and other factors that can slow the driver down, so it’s a constant battle to keep up with the scanner’s demands. When Ricky gets hurt, he realises what he’s really signed up for. Not only is there no sick leave, he has to pay for every day he can’t work, and the family’s life starts to go off the rails.
Shot in a semi-documentary style, the characters are totally believable, so it’s not surprising to learn that the actors are largely drawn from working-class backgrounds themselves and have experienced the world in which Sorry We Missed You is set. It’s the first major role for all of them and they are extraordinary. You feel as though you’re a fly on the wall on the rare occasions when the family is together at home or when Ricky is collecting his packages at the depot in the early morning. Kris Hitchen, in particular, embodies Ricky and deserves to be acknowledged when the BAFTAs come around. Robbie Ryan, who has recently shot The Favourite and Marriage Story, has done a terrific job of capturing the hard-scrabble lives of these hard-working people who just can’t take a trick.
Sorry We Missed You asks, in Loach’s words, “Do we really want a world in which people are working under such pressure, with the knock-on effects on their friends and their family and the narrowing of their lives? This is not the market economy failing - on the contrary, this is a logical development for the market, brought about by harsh competition to cut costs and maximise profit. The market is not interested in our quality of life. The market is interested in making money and the two are not compatible.” His depiction of capitalism on steroids is bleak but brilliant. If you like your movies to provide food for thought, grist for your intellectual and emotional mills, rather than mere escapist novelty, then this great film is definitely for you. Like fine wine, Ken Loach improves with age.