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Career Girls
1997
Director Mike Leigh follows up his Oscar-nominated SECRETS AND LIES with CAREER GIRLS, a bittersweet drama that deals with the passage of time between two friends. Annie (Lynda Steadman) and Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) were college roommates in London. Six years later, Annie is taking the train back into London to reunite with .. Read more
| Starring | Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman, Kate Byers, Mark Benton |
|---|---|
| Director | Mike Leigh |
| Genres | Drama |
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Career Girls
Director Mike Leigh follows up his Oscar-nominated SECRETS AND LIES with CAREER GIRLS, a bittersweet drama that deals with the passage of time between two friends. Annie (Lynda Steadman) and Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) were college roommates in London. Six years later, Annie is taking the train back into London to reunite with her friend. The resulting connection sparks flashbacks from the past, where we learn that Annie was even more shy and defensive than she is currently. Helping to pull her out of her shell was Adrian (Joe Tucker), a fellow student who had an affair with both girls while they were still in school. While apartment hunting for Hannah, they bump into Adrian, who is now a real estate agent. Sadly, he doesn't remember either of them. The reunion also triggers memories of Ricky (Mark Benton), an overweight, self-conscious friend whose fragility seemed ready to cave him in at any moment. When Hannah and Annie track Ricky down, they find that he has only gotten worse and are forced to reevaluate their current lives and face up to their muddled discontentment. Steadman, Cartlidge, and Benton deliver subtle yet deeply engaging performances in CAREER GIRLS, another moving character study from acclaimed director Leigh.
| Starring | Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman, Kate Byers, Mark Benton, Andy Serkis, Joe Tucker, Michael Healy, Margo Stanley |
|---|---|
| Director | Mike Leigh |
| Studio | CINEMA CLUB |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 23 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Subtitles | None |
| Released | DVD: 11 Feb 2002 Production year: 1997 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Mike Leigh isn't cinema's foremost realist, but he's definitely its most perceptive people watcher. The deceptively simple characters he favours inevitably reveal hidden depths that make them utterly fascinating. Here, arrogantly affected Katrin Cartlidge and twitchily timid Lynda Steadman are pretty resistible during the flashbacks to their college days. But they capture our sympathies during a series of low-key misadventures with three old friends and a thoroughly detestable newcomer, as they realise what frustrated mediocrities they have become. With its tentatively optimistic ending, this may be a small, rather safe film, yet it's also funny, touching and plausible.
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With a cast twitching away like contestants at a St Vitus's dance marathon, this is an intensely caricatured, unenlightening account of student life and its aftermath.
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Most helpful member's review
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9 out of 9 people found this review helpful
An English classic
If the Brontes, Austin and their ilk have written classic English literature, then surely Mike Leigh deserves equal recogniton for his contribution to cinema.
This film is funny, poignant, believable, entertaining and thoroughly English.
Little things worth mentioning is a soundtrack of classic songs by The Cure, an early appearance from Andy Serkis now best known as Gollum in Lord Of The Rings and some great cinematography of England as it really is.
The kind of film you want to ram down everyone's throat. -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Much to enjoy
It's not Leigh's best, its on a shoestring budget and the plot is full of holes. That miserly preface out of the way, its a sweet film about friendship and memory. The film shows the two female leads when they first meet at North London Poly and is convincing about student life in Thatcher's Britain in the 80s. In amongst the flashbacks, the narrative concerns the 'career girls' reunion, six years on. The two leads (the tragically late Cartlidge and Steadman) give good performances and are affecting as old friends warily trying to reconnect with one another.
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Career Girls
Director Mike Leigh follows up his Oscar-nominated SECRETS AND LIES with CAREER GIRLS, a bittersweet drama that deals with the passage of time between two friends. Annie (Lynda Steadman) and Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) were college roommates in London. Six years later, Annie is taking the train back ...
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