All or Nothing (film)

Infobox Film
name = All or Nothing


caption = All or Nothing Region 2 DVD cover
director = Mike Leigh
producer = Simon Channing-Williams
writer = Mike Leigh
music = Andrew Dickson
editing = Lesley Walker
running time = 128 minutes
distributor = UGC Films
United Artists (USA)
rating = 18 - Contains very strong language
country = United Kingdom
language = English
imdb_id = 0286261

"All or Nothing" is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh. Typical of Leigh's work, the film is set in present-day London, and revolves around three working-class families and the depiction of their everyday lives. It was well-received by critics and audiences alike, receiving an 82% fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com and an average B+ grade on Yahoo! Movies. It also won the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best British Film of the Year, and Mike Leigh was nominated for Best Director at the European Film Awards.

Primary Cast

*Timothy Spall: Phil
*Lesley Manville: Penny
*James Corden: Rory
*Alison Garland: Rachel
*Ruth Sheen: Maureen
*Marion Bailey: Carol
*Paul Jesson: Ron
*Sam Kelly: Sid
*Kathryn Hunter: Cécile
*Sally Hawkins: Samantha
*Helen Coker: Donna
*Daniel Mays: Jason
*Ben Crompton: Craig
*Robert Wilfort: Dr. Simon Griffith
*Gary McDonald: Neville

Plot

The film begins with a day nearing end. Rachel, the daughter in the first family, is shown working in a nursing home. Phil, her father, is shown driving people around in his taxi. Penny, Rachel's mother, is shown working as a cashier at Safeway store alongside Maureen, the mother in the second family. When Penny leaves work, she bikes home to find her eighteen-year-old son Rory in a fight with a local boy for taking his football. Rory is a lazy, obese, ill-mannered teenager who stays home all day and doesn't work. Complications with Rory's obesity arise when after an altercation with a gang of youths playing "Keep Away", he ultimately runs out of breath, begins to hyperventilate and is hospitalised after suffering a heart attack.

The second family consists of Maureen, another cashier at Safeway, and her daughter Donna, a cashier at a delicatessen. A brief storyline involves a dispute with Donna's boyfriend, Jason. Donna finds herself pregnant, despite being on the pill, and this leads to a heated argument between the three characters.

The third family consists of Ron, who is a taxi driver along with Phil, his unemployed teenage daughter Samantha, and his wife Carol, an unemployed alcoholic who is always shown intoxicated.

The film does not have one single storyline, but several. All are leading up to the climax, when Rory's heart attack, and the rest of the film involves only the first family and their crisis of faith.

External links

*imdb title|id=0286261|title=All or Nothing
*rotten-tomatoes|id=1117377-all_or_nothing|title=All or Nothing