Life Is Sweet

A comic yet gently melancholic story with food and symmetry on its mind and a cast of Leigh all-stars, Life Is Sweet twins the humble efforts of good-natured chef Andy (Jim Broadbent) to open his own mobile snack bar—sold to him by his drunken friend Patsy (Stephen Rea)—with the disastrous nouvelle-cuisine pretensions of the grandiose Aubrey (Timothy Spall), who opens his own bistro, The Regret Rien, where Andy’s cheerful wife Wendy (Alison Steadman) goes to work as a waitress. Meanwhile, there’s a subplot involving Andy and Wendy’s daughters: tomboy plumber Natalie (Clare Skinner), who seems to take after her father, and unhappy bulimic feminist Nicola (Jane Horrocks), who gets off on having her boyfriend (David Thewlis) lick chocolate off her breasts. One of Leigh’s funniest and most tender films is also one of his most optimistic about family ties. 2K Restoration. A Janus Films release.