Career Girls (1997)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Mike Leigh

Writer:

Mike Leigh (writer)

Release Date:

8 August 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

All Hannah wanted was a roommate... instead she got a best friend.

Plot:

2 young women reunite and rekindle their friendship after having said goodbye at their college graduation, six years earlier.

Plot Keywords:

College | Misfit | Roommate | Obesity | Eczema

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Career Girls - uranaisia (Finland) [fi]
Dos chicas de hoy (Spain) [es]
Filles d'aujourd'hui (Canada: French title) [fr]
Két angol lány (Hungary) [hu]
Karriere Girls (Germany) [de]
Koritsia karieras (Greece) [el]
Ragazze (Italy) [it]
Raparigas de Sucesso (Portugal) [pt]
Simplemente amigas (Argentina) [es]
Wspóllokatorki (Poland) [pl]
Yaldot Carriera (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexuality.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

UK | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

King's Cross Station, King's Cross, London, England, UK

Company:

Channel Four Films

Quotes:

Hannah: This isn't a bordello you know, you can't just walk into any boudoir and choose a different bint!

Movie Connections:

References "Play School" (1966)

Soundtrack:

The Lovecats

Painfully insightful

Career Girls is a film which garners my vote as one of the picks of 1997. Make no mistake - this is something special.

"What's it about, then?", I hear you cry. Well, lessee now - there's these two girls who used to live together at university who meet up for a weekend after six years. They wander around a bit, have coincidental meetings with a bunch of characters from their past (cue several extensive flashbacks) and then they part ways again. End of story.

It stars no one you've ever heard of. It probably cost less to make than Arnie alone was paid to appear in Batman and Robin. And, given that Mike Leigh (him of the harrowing Naked and the much-praised Secrets and Lies) is at the helm, you can bet that it packs more of a punch than Batdude could summon up if he'd spent a year having steroid daquiris injected into his jugular vein. Said body part being exactly what Leigh goes for, I might add.

This is a funny movie, but it won't have you rolling in the aisles or retelling scenes around the water cooler on Monday morning. It's a laughter born of desperation, the kind of bravery each of summons when, like Lucy Jordan, the day comes when we realise that we're never going to ride through Paris in that sportscar, when all we can do is grip ever tighter to whatever it is that gets us through the night and wonder what it's all been for. Sure it's depressing, but it's also somehow liberating to take stock and realise that we are not alone.

Leigh isn't making a movie, he's making a point, and that's fine and dandy if it comes in a package as fine as this one. Perhaps his greatest achievement is to make it painfully obvious that the two leads are not

really friends at all - they seem to have little in common, and at times appear quite uncomfortable in each other's presence. Each is simply a totem to the other, a reminder of the times that were, a living embodiment of the past which, in making itself known once more, serves to anchor it to the present. At times their differences are so acute that the act of viewing becomes almost painful, as if we are privy to something personal upon which we would prefer not to intrude.

This film is devoid of sentiment and positively brimming with pathos, but that's not to say that it doesn't have a heart. This film is about you, and it's about me, and it's about every screwed-up decision we've ever made and the people who fell along the way, and it's about the past we don't yearn for and the shysters we've encountered and the people who've used our love and the love we've been happy to give and hope and loss and heartbreak and determination. But most of all it's about maintaining, of pushing on in the face of adversity driven by nothing more than the hope of a better tomorrow.

We are not alone, friends, and this film proves it. Mark my words - not every gift of value comes in fancy packaging.