Word: leigh
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This philosophy of story-telling -- that life stories are more a matter of narrating daily annoyances so as to expose long-festering miseries and lies at the most improper time -- might seem at first grating and pessimistic. Adding Leigh's habit of parking the camera before two or three people whose lives are slowly cracking and splintering might seem a bit much. But in fact, as the scenes are drawn out, we are drawn in. We wish for the characters' sake that the shot would end, if only for the illusion that their sadness might stop for a beat...
...Leigh seems intent upon this there-are-no-closed-doors philosophy; more than once we are privy to the sight of a loo and its occupant. Indeed, Maurice's entire career consists of extracting sparkling teeth and good cheer from frowning or bickering subjects. While sometimes the interludes where we see Maurice photographing clients offers comic relief (a goofy couple, for example), we're so conditioned to expect the overwhelming secrets behind a given scene that we do not rest for too long...
...these pacific figures, Leigh adds shaking, saddened Cynthia -- and there lies the rub. Blethyn gives Cynthia all the delicacy and poise of a crack baby, at times almost frightening to watch. This portrayal works to a large extent and could probably stand on its own. She is, in truth, still a child who was thrust into playing the adult early on, and Blethyn's small, quavering voice further lends a perfect, little-girl feel to all her quirky little expressions ("I wouldn't know 'im if'e stood up in me soup...
...misery, to achieve great heights of red-faced weeping, to which the other actors simply aren't aspiring. It's not overdone, it's completely appropriate to her story but there are rare times when it just doesn't click. Fortunately, these times are few and far between, and Leigh knows enough to manipulate the overall pace of the movie so as to distribute attention fairly amongst the ones suffering. At one point, when Cynthia begins to meet regularly with her new-found darling Hortense, a previously unseen relaxed tone provides ample variety...
Technically, the movie looks by turns stunning and plain, whichever is appropriate. In some shots, Leigh prefers to give the actors full attention, ignoring all else (which perhaps led to the scene between Cynthia and Hortense in a restaurant that is completely devoid of waitstaff and customers). But in others, Leigh has composed the screen with the care of a painter: here, Maurice sits brooding in a bar such that we expect to see a glass of absinthe; there, a ringing phone becomes a demon in the dark as Cynthia nervously approaches...