Sightlines · reception
How Life Is Sweet was received
1991 · Mike Leigh · Life Is Sweet on Sightlines
The arc
A critical darling on release — the US National Society of Film Critics named it 1991's Best Picture — it then spent years overshadowed by Naked and Secrets & Lies before a 2013 Criterion edition helped restore its standing as one of Leigh's very best.
What’s debated
It's a flashpoint in the perennial Mike Leigh debate: is his affection for these suburban characters genuine, or does the broad comic grotesquerie (Aubrey above all) tip into condescension?
Its footprint
Timothy Spall's doomed restaurant the Regret Rien, with its gleefully revolting menu, is the film's endlessly quoted party piece — cinephiles trade the dish names like punchlines.
Where it stands
The connoisseur's Mike Leigh pick — a Criterion-blessed favorite that fans love to name over his more famous films.
Did you know? The National Society of Film Critics voted it the Best Picture of 1991, and its awards swept the family too: Alison Steadman (then married to Leigh) took Best Actress and Jane Horrocks Best Supporting Actress.