In 2017, a lot of hubbub was made about David Lynch including an extended scene of a man sweeping in Twin Peaks: The Return. Mike Leigh’s 2002 film, All or Nothing, begins with an extended scene of a woman mopping. Rachel (Alison Garland) works at a nursing home and the mopping takes place over the film’s opening credits.
This won’t be the only time Leigh lingers on a scene in the movie. Later in the film, Rachel is with her parents, Phil (Timothy Spall) and Penny (Lesley Manville), and they’re walking down a hallway, with their backs to the camera. If you’re the kind of person who checks their phone during a movie, this might seem like the moment to do it, except then you’d miss the moment when Phil puts an arm over Penny’s shoulder, or the moment, a few beats later, when Penny shrugs it off.
These are the little human dramas Leigh chooses to amplify in his movies, which aren’t always given a chance to breath in mainstream movies. Rachel doesn’t say much in All or Nothing, but when an elderly woman moves to walk across the wet floor, Rachel tries to stop her. Her offer to help gets shut down, but she still moves behind her so she can be close by if the woman slips.
All or Nothing is about ordinary people living ordinary lives because that’s all you need to make a great movie. Featuring Leigh regulars like Ruth Sheen and Manville — and then-Hollywood newcomer Sally Hawkins (who would go on to star in Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky) — real life doesn’t have to be spiced up in order to provide moments of drama and pathos. Of the three families, Rachel’s gets the most complete arc, but none of the storylines are cleanly resolved.
What stands out most about this movie, though, is how unpredictable it is. Leigh never forces an “I love you” or an apology from a character to make them more palatable. The conflicts in this movie, too, are the kind that don’t always get resolved, like the problems that have developed in Penny and Phil’s marriage. Neither of them is satisfied with how things are, but does that mean they’re going to confront each other about those issues? Not always. One might even say probably not. They’re painful and long-standing, and All or Nothing doesn’t make any promises that they’ll address them.
Severin’s Blu-Ray comes with the same bonus features included on Studio Canal’s UK release of the film. These include new interviews recorded in 2021 with Leigh and cinematographer Dick Pope (who’ve become frequent collaborators). One of the things they talk about is the lucky break they had with finding the council estate where they filmed most of the movie. There’s also a new featurette with members of the cast, where they talk about Leigh’s collaborative approach to directing (which includes a lot of rehearsal time to find the characters). While the trailer rightfully highlights the relationships in the movie as being the most important, it also gives away some of the plot points and might be best avoided.
All or Nothing is available on Blu-Ray and DVD starting November 23rd from Severin Films.
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