All or Nothing (film)

Plot summary

The film begins with a day nearing end. Rachel, the daughter in the first family, is shown working in a nursing home. Phil, her father, is shown driving people around in his minicab. Penny, Rachel's mother, is shown working as a cashier at Safeway store alongside Maureen, the mother in the second family. When Penny leaves work, she cycles home to find her eighteen-year-old son Rory in a fight with a local boy for taking his football. Rory is a lazy, obese, ill-mannered teenager who stays home all day and doesn't work. Complications with Rory's obesity arise when after an altercation with a gang of youths playing "Piggy in the Middle", he ultimately runs out of breath, begins to hyperventilate and is hospitalised after suffering a heart attack.

The second family consists of Maureen, another cashier at Safeway, and her daughter Donna, a waitress at a cafe. A brief storyline involves a dispute with Donna's boyfriend, Jason. Donna finds herself pregnant, despite being on the pill, and this leads to a heated argument between the three characters.

The third family consists of Ron, who is a minicab driver along with Phil, his unemployed teenage daughter Samantha, and his wife Carol, an unemployed alcoholic who is always shown intoxicated.

The film does not have one single storyline, but several. All are leading up to the climax, when Rory suffers a heart attack, leading to a relationship crisis in the first family.

Cast

Film locations

Dungeness in Kent was used as a film location for the scene where Phil visits the coast to contemplate his problems.

Reception

It was well received by critics and audiences alike, receiving an 83% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The critical consensus states that "All or Nothing's depiction of the working-class can be depressingly bleak, but the performances are wonderfully true to life." The film holds an average B+ grade on Yahoo! Movies.

Awards

The film won the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best British Film of the Year, and Mike Leigh was nominated for Best Director at the European Film Awards. The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.