Mike Leigh is not the kind of director who tries to make you feel comfortable. His movies don’t offer easy answers, happy endings, or simple characters. Instead, he shows life as it really is — messy, funny, painful, and sometimes hard to watch. Hard Truths, his latest film, fits right into that tradition.

Set in present-day London, Hard Truths follows two sisters, Pansy and Chantelle. Pansy, played by the incredible Marianne Jean-Baptiste, is a bitter, angry woman trapped in her own unhappiness. Chantelle, beautifully portrayed by Michele Austin, is the opposite: warm, kind, and always smiling. Even though they share the same background and family, their lives couldn’t be more different.

The story lacks a big, dramatic plot. Instead, it feels like we’re simply dropped into these women’s lives, watching small moments that slowly reveal who they are. Leigh is a master at making these everyday scenes feel powerful. A simple family dinner or a conversation in a beauty salon can carry surprising emotional weight.

Pansy is a difficult character. She wakes up screaming from nightmares, picks fights over small things like banana peels, and pushes away everyone around her — her husband, her son, even strangers. But instead of making her a villain, Leigh shows us her pain and loneliness. Her anger isn’t just anger; it’s fear, sadness, and years of feeling invisible.

Jean-Baptiste gives an amazing performance. She plays Pansy with such raw emotion that you sometimes want to look away — and sometimes you want to hug her. It’s hard to watch, but that’s what makes it real. She doesn’t turn Pansy into a simple “bad” or “good” character. She shows us a full human being, full of contradictions.

The film’s look is simple and stripped-down. Pansy’s house feels cold and sterile, while Chantelle’s home is warm and full of life. These spaces quietly tell us a lot about the characters without needing a lot of dialogue.

Hard Truths is a movie focused on delivering a straightforward experience without relying on flashy scenes or big speeches to make an impact. It’s about the slow grind of life — how sadness can build up over time, how family can hurt and heal, and how sometimes people are stuck in pain they don’t know how to escape.

That being said, the film has its flaws. At times, it feels a bit repetitive, and watching Pansy lash out again and again can get exhausting. Some scenes feel a little too staged, as if they were created in a workshop rather than lived naturally. Still, these are small flaws in a movie that mostly feels honest and deeply human.

In the end, Hard Truths is exactly what the title promises: a tough but tender look at people dealing with pain in their own imperfect ways. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s a powerful one — and a reminder of how good Mike Leigh is at finding beauty and sadness in the everyday.

By Antonis Lappas.