Chicago International Film Festival 2024: 'Hard Truths'
If one of the most tragic ways to reach the end of one’s life is the realization that one hasn’t really lived it, being unable to enjoy it is even grimmer yet.
A more miserable fate is difficult to imagine, and all the more cataclysmic for it being self-inflicted. But such is the case for Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) in Hard Truths, who is not so much responding to the state of our current world as making her own darker. Always ready to respond viciously to the hint of a slight, constantly imagining the worst in every scenario, she would be a terror in the most prosperous and stable of times, and she’s no match for these.
Writer-director Mike Leigh makes the tragedy of Pansy’s situation clear from the start, showcasing the pleasant street and music that could permeate her finely kept home if she would allow it. But the environment she’s built with her long-suffering husband Curtley (David Webber) and son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) is all immaculate modern whiteness, requiring constant monitoring and care. It’s prosperous but never luxurious, a gateway to this woman’s obsessive need for control in the midst of the chaos she perceives beyond her doorstep.
Thank goodness for the time spent in her sister Chantal’s (Michele Austin) home, who practically frolics with her daughters in spaces alive with vibrant green, allowing for life to flow along with the laughter. Unable to understand her sister Pansy, Chantal is one of the film’s most welcome sources of relief, capable of loving Pansy and providing insight into a woman who often never seems more than a bitter shell.
Who but Mike Leigh could bring compassion to such a character as she makes a one woman case for god, because may he help anyone in the service industry unfortunate enough to encounter someone like Pansy. If there’s dark humor to be found, it’s because it isn’t us, and Leigh doesn’t bother to bring much besides a mere outline to the plot, because Pansy can make her own obstacles, thank you very much.
If there’s one conclusion we can take from Hard Truths, it’s that Pansy clearly suffers from some form of depression and needs tender, loving, professional care beyond what her family is able to provide. But it’s not easy to bring up with the kind of woman whose toxicity seems so formidably ingrained that she doesn’t get a one-fingered response until after she’s safely out of the room.
There is some explanation as to how such a brutal slice-of-life came to this everyday hell when Pansy and Chantal visit their mother’s grave and her effect on both their lives provides some needed context. But more is going to be required eventually; Leigh understands that life requires some sort of solution. Even the seemingly impenetrable hell we’ve created for ourselves is going to be breached eventually by a process that goes on until it doesn’t.
Grade: A-
