Career Girls . Tucson Weekly . 09-22-97

Career Girls

DIRECTED BY: Mike Leigh

REVIEWED: 09-22-97

Mike Leigh's impressionistic portrait of the changes in the lives of two young women is sweet, refreshing, and original. When Annie (Lynda Steadman) comes to London to visit Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge), her former best friend, the two haven't seen each other since graduating from college. Their initial awkwardness fades away as the pair re-visit the site of previous betrayals and adventures; Leigh pops us back and forth in time so we can observe the changes in the character's lives. We see them in college, neurotic, full of ticks (Hannah has the annoying habit of using her hand as a talking puppet) and incessantly listening to The Cure. This alternates with footage of the two in the present, well-dressed and still slightly off-kilter, but with the grace and perspective to finally understand the confusion they'd gone through as undergraduates: Imagine Mary and Rhoda having a reunion, but with thick British accents and adult situations. What's more, the acting in this movie is wonderful--strange and natural at once.

--Richter

Full Length Reviews
Career Girls
Career Girls
Career Girls

Other Films by Mike Leigh
Secrets & Lies

Film Vault Suggested Links
Eve's Bayou
Magnolia
Liberty Heights

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