Career Girls (1997)

Career Girls (1997) (DVD) (*)

$21.99

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
83 min + 18 min extras

Aspect Ratio:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Short Film

Movie filmed in 1997 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Mike Leigh

Written By:
Mike Leigh

Actors:
Katrin Cartlidge ..... Hannah Mills
Lynda Steadman ..... Annie
Kate Byers ..... Claire
Mark Benton ..... Ricky Burton
Andy Serkis ..... Mr. Evans
Joe Tucker ..... Adrian Spinks
Margo Stanley ..... Mrs. Burton, Ricky's Nan
Michael Healy ..... Lecturer

Synopsis:

From the award winning director of Secrets And Lies comes Career girls - a wonderful film about friendship, love, sex and hilarious memories of student life. Career Girls looks at two young career women of 30 who meet up after a long period apart and rediscover the relationship they enjoyed when they shared an apartment years ago. During the course of one weekend of action, they encounter several people with whom they were students in London in the mid '80s and through a series of flashbacks to those youthful days, we build up a picture of the way they have all changed in the intervening years. Moving, sad and funny, it's a film about love and youth and sex and memories. Mike Leigh cleverly weaves together past and present as we share their memories; the touching, the funny and the sometimes tragic.
Full of classic one liners, hilarious comedy and tear inducing emotion, Career Girls is Mike Leigh at his very best.

Full of classic one liners, hilarious comedy and tear-inducing emotion, Career Girls is Mike Leigh at his best. Less wrenching and emotionally involving than his masterful Secrets and Lies, Mike Leigh's Career Girls is nonetheless an engrossing character study of two former friends and the differences that time and distance have wrought upon their friendship. There's a rueful melancholy and bittersweetness to Career Girls, and at first the viewer supposes this is due to regrets engendered by the awkwardness these formerly close mates now feel. Eventually, however, the viewer realizes that there's a general discontentment inherent in the characters' lives. These are young people who, for all intents and purposes, have already platformed. They may advance in superficial matters, such as their careers, but they lack the ability to make as much of their lives as they desire. Katrin Cartlidge is superb as Hannah, playing her cynical and sarcastic younger self with enough overemphasized nonchalance to suggest the insecurity that lies underneath. As she matures, the mellowing is believable and consistent. Lynda Steadman is also quite good; if she is less memorable, it is partially because the role is more problematic. The chemistry between the two is excellent; the manner in which the two metaphorically saunter around each other during their reunion is perfect. As always, Leigh captures wonderful nuances and details in the characters that reveal more than the dialogue would suggest. With the screenplay relying heavily (and self-consciously) on coincidences, Career Girls is a worthy effort from an always-interesting filmmaker.

Career girls opens with a train journey towards London's Kings Cross where Annie, one of the major characters is about to meet her old university friend Hannah. She recalls moving into a grotty student flat with Hannah in the mid-eighties. In those days Annie was self conscious and jumpy. The pair have not seen one another since graduation. They both now have moderately successful careers and are, at least on the surface, self assured in their new lives. However, they are still carrying a lot of emotional baggage from their university days. During the course of a weekend they rediscover their close friendship and encounter many faces from the past.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 26 October, 2014.