Movie Review: Marianne Jean-Baptiste Shows Grit and Vulnerability in ‘Hard Truths’

We all know that one person in our lives who can’t help themselves from being loud and rude for seemingly no reason. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays this exact type in Mike Leigh’s latest film Hard Truths.

Jean-Baptiste was sweeping awards season as critic groups’ choice for Best Actress of 2024 until Fernanda Torres took the fifth spot in the category at the Oscars. Though awards are nice additions to an artist’s reputation, time and public consensus has shown that sometimes the less publicized performances last longer than the big wins.

And with Hard Truths, we have a very real, relevant character in Leigh’s trademark, authentic style.

In modern day London, Pansy Deacon (Jean-Baptiste) is an unpleasant housewife who is constantly complaining and criticizing anything in her way. Her poor, lethargic husband, Curtley (David Webber) puts up with her outbursts when he’s not working for a plumbing company, while Pansy also gives their grown son, Moses (Tuwaine Barrett), a hard time for “wasting his life” living at home without a job or any social life.

On the other side of town, Pansy’s younger sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) is a carefree widow who works at a hair salon and has two bright, adult daughters who are amid breaking through in their careers.

Hard Truths reunites Jean-Baptiste, Austin and Leigh since the critically acclaimed Secrets and Lies (1996), with Leigh doing his usual double duty as director and screenwriter alongside two regular Leigh collaborators, cinematographer Dick Pope and composer Gary Yershon.

While Jean-Baptiste gives a hell of a performance, I was worried for a moment during the first half that she was going to be “on” for the whole movie, like Mikey Madison in Anora (2024). We can physically see all the pent-up anger of Pansy bursting at the seams throughout the first hour of Hard Truths and it could have easily become exhausting to watch after a while.

But then there’s a moment between Pansy and Chantelle where a switch is flipped. No one is loud anymore, but the tension is bigger than any of the noise from earlier in the film. Pansy breaks and no one knows how to respond to her silence.

Silly me for momentarily doubting one of the UK’s legendary independent filmmakers. This is the same man who made Secrets and Lies, Naked (1993), All or Nothing (2002) and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). He is a master of showing the blunt, ornate lives of ordinary, working class people. There is grit, but also vulnerability in his stories that are consistently refreshing.

Besides Jean-Baptiste, Austin and Webber balance out the tone of Hard Truths nicely, and a lot of the scenes of Pansy yelling at people minding their business is genuinely amusing in an irreverent, reverse Archie Bunker type of way. It’s also great to see the Black community in England for a change of pace.