Director Ken Loach’s latest and perhaps final film is a work that inhabits the same space and fights the same battles as his previous one I, Daniel Blake. I like this one quite a bit more not least because I’m much more sympathetic towards a family who has to face a succession of escalating problems rather than a single big crisis. Yet at the same time, I think this is another example of Loach being too out of touch with society as it is today and too dead set on interpreting everything through the lens of capitalism vs socialism when this seems like an increasingly outmoded way of looking at the world.
Ricky, a struggling father of two, gets a job as a so-called self-employed delivery driver, explaining to his boss that life has been tough for him since the 2008 financial crisis. In order to afford a van however, he convinces his wife Abbie to sell her car, even though she needs it to do her job as a home care nurse forcing her to take buses instead. Ricky soon learns the exigencies of having to work to the strict demands of his handheld scanner as he rushes about to complete his allotted deliveries, including having to pee in a bottle. Meanwhile their son Seb gets into constant trouble. Without his parents not having much time for him, he skips school and goes out spraying graffiti with his friends. Their younger daughter Liza is better behaved and tries to help out. But as Seb’s problems, including getting arrested for shoplifting, causes fights and arguments in the house, she becomes distressed as well.
It’s impossible not to sympathize with this blue collar family who are decent people just struggling to get by. Both Ricky and Abbie work punishingly long hours but that is only enough to barely keep their heads above water. There is no slack at all for them to take the time out to deal with their personal problems, such as when Seb’s school asks both parents to come to a meeting, or when Abbie feels like she needs to spend a little more time to help her elderly and neglected clients. This causes small problems to compound and turn into major crises as they just can’t take the time off to defuse them. The uncooperative Seb is a major source of family drama but as Loach makes clear, it’s mainly because traditional school is a bad fit for him and he needs more attention and understanding from his constantly absent parents. He actually does seem to have some artistic talent but lives in an environment that is not able to nurture it.
This film is perhaps a little too didactic as Loach’s line of thinking is plainly obvious but it’s a point that is worth thinking and talking about. This truly is a family that deserves our sympathy and a leg up. But Loach’s wider point is that the existence of such families is proof that the system has failed and I can’t quite see that. I agree that the delivery company taking on the drivers as contractors instead of employees and so depriving them of the usual legal protections and that is indeed a wrong that is currently being rectified in the courts. But beyond that it’s hard to point out any specific failing. More social spending would help raise wages for Abbie, sure, but there are the usual trade-offs against other urgent needs. Ricky apparently used to be an unskilled laborer in the construction industry but claims that jobs have dried up. It is a good idea for the UK to build more houses but the problem there is people who oppose any new construction. Most of all, Loach appears to think that the education system should be able to accommodate kids like Seb who just isn’t a good fit for traditional schooling. It’s true that in a rich family, someone like him would get to have the private art classes, extra-curricular activity and tutoring to shine and stay out of trouble. But it seems like an unreasonably big ask to me. Do we really expect the state to have the capacity to cater to the unique needs of every single child?
Most of all this film feels off because it feels like it’s fighting yesterday’s battles and not today’s. If we’re meant to be sympathetic to the most underprivileged families in the UK, why is this a story about an all white family? Why are blue collar workers voting against their interests for the Conservative Party instead of the Labour Party that Loach has been part of for 50 years? Is Brexit good or bad for families like this? Should a universal basic income be instituted for everyone? This is a well made film but it just doesn’t feel like part of the modern conversation that people are having.