Not all of Mike Leigh's social satires are meant to be funny, and here's a case in point. This introspective portrait of a common lower middle class English household is even more bleak than usual, filled with an almost overwhelming air of inarticulate despair. These are gray, empty people trapped in gray, empty lives: Mr. Thornley is a night watchman in a desolate warehouse, Mrs. Thornley is a servant in her own home (as well as in the house of a cold, upper class matron, for whom she spends her working days dusting already spotless mantel ornaments), and Leigh's all too honest approach to the mundane agony of their daily existence leaves the viewer with an uncomfortable sense of having eavesdropped. Look quick for Ben Kingsley, playing a local abortionist; like every actor in a Mike Leigh film he all but disappears in the self-made role.