Ruth Sheen is exceptional as always, ably partnered by Jim Broadbent. Lesley Manville is perhaps a shade too much as a woman who becomes more and more unstuck as it progresses. The scene in which she meets the girlfriend is the pivotal one, where Mike suddenly takes us up close to the faces. With Oliver Maltman, Peter Wight ("What are we going to do with you?"), David Bradley, Martin Savage and Karina Fernandez, who has the film's best comic moment as she enacts suicide when learning that Manville is there. Imelda Staunton is wonderful as a depressed patient. Alcohol figures as a big problem here. You have these scenes in which nothing extraordinary seem to be happening and then there's this ping - no, more like a gong - of reverberation - a big moment.
Shot by Dick Pope, lovely, simple music by Gary Yershon, edited by Jon Gregory.
It's perhaps not quite on a par with some of his best, but the simple dignity of the central couple, their warmth and humour and stoicism, are a joy to behold. And there's those moments that somehow really stand out.
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