I've seen many films about the lives of the British working class, ranging from "A Taste Honey" to "Vera Drake." They generally show people with hard lives, who are nevertheless making the best of things and trying to do what's right.
This isn't one of those films. The family here is totally dysfunctional and the parents seen to have no interest in their children at all. There's no money to put in the electric meter but plenty of money for a large stash of booze. There are some funny moments, such as when the two boys (about 8 and 14) play a trick on their stupified father one morning. But a more typical example of daily life is when the older boy is leaving the house one day. His mother has no interest in what he's doing or where he's going, but just wants to know if he's coming home that night.
The crisis in the plot happens on Guy Fawkes Night, November 5th, when the younger boy goes to a bonfire with his friend (again with no apparent knowledge or interest in his activities by his parents), then decides to sleeps outdoors in a shed and nearly dies from the cold. He's rescued by his friend's mother, and when his parents see him playing in the park with the friend the next day, their only comment is, "The coppers are looking for you."
Ultimately his parents are found unfit and the younger boy is placed in a foster home. The father's main concern is that, with one child gone, they lose 25 quid from their housing allowance. When the teenager is told about his brother's placement, his only question to the officers is if he can go to a foster home too. This film is semi-autobiographical, and that teenager was the filmmaker himself.
The plot of Ray & Liz is a string of incidents rather than a highly structured whole. It starts with the father, elderly and alone, living in a single room, spending his pension on booze and all his time drinking. The rest of the story is a flashback from there, except at the very end when the mother comes to visit him -- to borrow money.
This is a powerful story, but don't watch it expecting a happy ending.
This isn't one of those films. The family here is totally dysfunctional and the parents seen to have no interest in their children at all. There's no money to put in the electric meter but plenty of money for a large stash of booze. There are some funny moments, such as when the two boys (about 8 and 14) play a trick on their stupified father one morning. But a more typical example of daily life is when the older boy is leaving the house one day. His mother has no interest in what he's doing or where he's going, but just wants to know if he's coming home that night.
The crisis in the plot happens on Guy Fawkes Night, November 5th, when the younger boy goes to a bonfire with his friend (again with no apparent knowledge or interest in his activities by his parents), then decides to sleeps outdoors in a shed and nearly dies from the cold. He's rescued by his friend's mother, and when his parents see him playing in the park with the friend the next day, their only comment is, "The coppers are looking for you."
Ultimately his parents are found unfit and the younger boy is placed in a foster home. The father's main concern is that, with one child gone, they lose 25 quid from their housing allowance. When the teenager is told about his brother's placement, his only question to the officers is if he can go to a foster home too. This film is semi-autobiographical, and that teenager was the filmmaker himself.
The plot of Ray & Liz is a string of incidents rather than a highly structured whole. It starts with the father, elderly and alone, living in a single room, spending his pension on booze and all his time drinking. The rest of the story is a flashback from there, except at the very end when the mother comes to visit him -- to borrow money.
This is a powerful story, but don't watch it expecting a happy ending.