Everyday

EVERYDAY

Director : Michael Winterbottom

Year : 2013

Genre : Drama

Rating : ****

There has a been a trend in recent independent and world cinema where social and moral issues have been represented and explored through the eyes of an innocent child. While some of these movies can seem preachy and overwrought, others can drive a message home with the use of relatable characters, realistic story arcs and engaging and compelling dialogue. Films such as 'Let The Right One In', 'The Kid With A Bike', 'Lore' and to a lesser extent 'Fish Tank' and 'Submarine' have all explored the loss of childhood, the bumpy and unexpected transition to adulthood and the underlying darkness harboured within young adults. Whether it is through the use of witty and memorable dialogue or scenes of unexplainable horror and unbearable tension, filmmakers have suddenly hit on the magic ingredients that make bildungsroman stories work and as a result, some of the most interesting, engaging and downright best movies released in recent years have all had at their hearts the character of a young child/adult exploring the world through experiences of death, love and tragedy. 'Everyday' is such a film. Directed by the brilliant Michael Winterbottom and starring the majestic Shirley Henderson and Jon Simm, 'Everyday' explores the the innocence and the blind optimism of children, the necessity for family and the heartache caused by familial turmoil and the loss of a parental figure. The result is a heartbreakingly poignant and moving story that made me smile, made me think and certainly made me cry.

Set over 5 years, 'Everyday' explores the daily life of Karen, a middle aged mother who has to look after her 4 young children on her own after her husband is incarcerated for an unspecified crime. Stress, despression and anger swarm around her and through the course of the film we see how Karen deals with the overwhelming pressure of bringing up 4 young ones while also exploring the psychological and social effect the incident has on the children.

Unlike Michael Winterbottom's last format film, the scrungy and explicit '9 Songs' which was brash, harsh and unbearably overt, 'Everyday' is a very reserved and quiet movie that creates it's power through the use of whispered dialogue, scenes of raw emotion and the pain and anguish shown in the faces on screen. Shirley Henderson is just brilliant as the vulnerable and delicate mothering figure, whose visage and quietude tells the story of many sleepless nights, hours of constant crying and the strain of bringing up 4 young children on her own. It is through her acting we see the pressure caused by an incarcerated partner and she does a fantastic job of being heartbreakingly realistic without crying out for sympathy or pity. Her performance reminded me very much of Olivia Colman's performance in Paddy Considine's acerbic 'Tyrannosaur' which also managed to bring immense emotion and power to the screen through the use of facial acting and body language. 

While not given as much screen time as Henderson, Jon Simm is compelling and engaging as the prisoner, whose choices in life have come between him and his beloved children. Through his eyes we see the grief caused by the loss of his sons and daughters and as a result, we feel empathy towards a character we hardly know. In fact, the biggest acheivement of 'Everyday' is that it manages to allow us to feel sympathy and immense pity for characters we know anything about through the help of expert acting and truthful and honest dialogue. While we do not know what crime Ian has committed, we feel so much compassion for both Karen and the children that we wish that his sentence could be shortened so that he could be with his beloved family. It is a very clever device that Winterbottom uses because for all we know, Ian could have murdered or seriously injured someone. If we had been told what he been arrested for  or the severity of the crimes he had committed, it would be almost be impossible to feel any sense of pity or empathy for the character. However, blinding us from the crime and focusing on the emotion, he allows us to deeply empathise with this mysterious but loving criminal. Like the best British directors such as Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and Terence Davies, Michael Winterbottom has a way of bringing the zeitgeists and social issues surrounding us all right there on screen and directly into our hearts.

The children are appropriately cute and adorable, but they are also able to bring immense empathy and pathos to the screen. For actors of such a young age, they are astonishingly good and with the help of Winterbottom's delicate and reserved direction, 'Everyday' has some of the most touching moments in recent British cinema revolving around the younger generations. Unlike other films which have young actors, insistent on cramming their mouths with sly and jocular dialogue and false personas, Winterbottom allows the children in 'Everyday' to actually act like children. Throughout the film, we see them scrapping, having a tantrum and crying uncontrollably and these moments add to the raw emotion and the overall realism of the film. With Winterbottoms insistense on filming over 5 years, we see the children develop, mature and grow right before our eyes, reinvoking the feeling of watching home videos or looking through beloved photo albums and it is simultaneously beautiful and strangely melancholic; almost saying farewell to blind innocence and gleeful ignorance.

Comparable to Nicholas Philbert's brilliant but controversial documentary 'Etre Et Avoir', 'Everyday' is a moving, powerful and hugely impressive film that manages to create an air of deep emotion and passion through quiet acting, non invasive camera work and a hauntingly beautiful score written by composer Michael Nyman. Often in films, we see the effect that prison life has on the incarcerated but very rarely focusing on the families of the sentenced. Winterbottom has corrected this and as a result, has created one of the most provocative and touching films of the year.