--- title: "Life Is Sweet: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/life-is-sweet/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/life-is-sweet" critics_score: 86 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Life Is Sweet (1991): what the critics said Critics' score 86 from 8 reviews: 8 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly warm. Most critics take the film as a portrait of a lower-middle-class English family at the close of the Thatcher years, and credit Leigh’s improvisational method with the actors for finding both the comedy and the sadness in it. The praise clusters on the performances, with Alison Steadman’s mother singled out as the one holding the household together, and on a mother-daughter confrontation that more than one review calls the emotional centre. The spread is narrow and nobody dissents; the differences are of degree. The earliest American reviews rank it among the best of its year and among Leigh’s finest, while Variety and The New York Times are more moderate, admiring a sympathetic comedy that is funny without being uproarious. The AV Club is alone in reading it as a balancing act between grotesque comedy and pathos, and in noting a shift towards a kind of magic social realism in the score and style. ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 13 November 1991. A marvelously eccentric film that is at once surreal and very real, with nothing happening yet everything experienced. Leigh's perfect psychological pitch saves the improvisational method and creates an emotionally authentic work. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-13-ca-1187-story.html) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 24 December 1991. The film is a masterpiece and one of the best of the year. Leigh's improvisational approach with actors yields both great humor and poignant family revelations. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/life-is-sweet-1991) ## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 May 2013. Praises the film as one of Leigh’s best, a tough and compassionate study of a British family at the end of the Thatcher era. Singles out the pivotal mother-daughter confrontation scene as rich and heartbreaking. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/life-is-sweet/) ## Time Out — SGr Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The film is a magnificent follow-up to High Hopes, with Leigh's improvisational method creating symmetry between two very different chefs and twin daughters contrasting their normal parents. It mixes enormous fun with sad subjects like enterprise rip-offs, adolescent despair and parents' lost dreams, highlighted by the gutsy optimism of the central couple. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/life-is-sweet) ## The New Yorker — Terrence Rafferty Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 28 October 1991. Leigh's film has the exuberance of a first film and examines ordinary lower-middle-class family life with fresh perspective. It generates piercing moments of clarity through its unconventional, improvisational structure. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1991/11/04/1991-11-04-029-tny-cards-000145327) ## The AV Club — Sam Adams Rating B+. 29 May 2013. Views the film as a delicate balancing act between grotesque comedy and deeper pathos, with strong performances revealing character depths. Notes Leigh’s shift toward magic social realism through its score and style. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/life-is-sweet-1798176928) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 25 October 1991. A very special English comedy that evokes the end of the Thatcher era through the routines of a lower-middle-class family. It is funny without splitting sides and an actor's field day. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/25/movies/review-film-a-comedy-about-life-after-margaret-thatcher.html) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1990. Mike Leigh's film is a highly sympathetic comedy centered on a suburban family, highlighted by Alison Steadman's superb performance as the resilient wife and mother who supports everyone around her amid various mishaps. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1990/film/reviews/life-is-sweet-1200428850/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/life-is-sweet.md