Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Cezar Cruzetta I would like to suggest a name for the film High Hopes in Brazilian Portuguese because we do not have it yet. I researched the Internet and found this European name "Grandes Ambições" that is compatible with the idea of the author of the film. My Brazilian suggestion would be "Hiperesperançosos" a good name, it is short and covers the expectations and anecdotes of the rising working class.

asais I watched it after having seen the glowing reviews and references to mike Leigh's work, well all I saw was a cartoon. A political cheap shot that relies on such simplistic and exaggerated caricatures really only cheapens any point he is trying to make. The car salesman and his social-climbing wife are obnoxious to the point of absurdity, the posh folks next door are the same, all ice-cold and uncaring, basically he isn't doing so much social commentary as beating his point to death with such a ham-fisted delivery that he destroys his own credibility. Long shots of the elderly woman and her plight in this cartoon just come off as out of place in this film, on one hand it is pretending to explore real issues like aging and socialist ideas in thatchers Britain, but surrounded by the cartoonish back ground it just comes off as very pointless. You got where he was going in the first 25% of the film, and it doesn't really add anything from that point on, it just continues beating the dead horse, nothing much of real value is explored after that. Other reviews mention it explores dynamics of family and siblings and aging, but really it only touches on these in the most shallow way possible between the absurd moments of cartoonish acting. It is the kind of film you'd expect from a political hack, not a philosopher.

p_adkins2004 Released in 1988, this is Mike Leigh's (director of Vera Drake) sublime comedy which examines the social climate of 1980s London.I really liked this film, it centres on one extended family living in London during the Thatcher years. Cyril is a Marxist, who does despite his strong values and views chooses not to act on them, giving the world up for a hopeless cause. His partner, Shirley, desperately wants a baby, despite Cyril's strong views that the world is already "over-populated". Living in the last council house on a now yuppie infested road is Cyril's mum. A member of the generation who has been forgotten, she is slowly losing her marbles, much to the distaste of her neighbours. And as for Cyril's sister, Valerie, who lives in the social climbing climate of the middle class, she has seemingly to forgotten her roots and family ties, no doubt due to her excessive drinking of cheap champagne and her leeching husband.This film is a brilliant gem of 1980s British cinema, despite its clear socialist values (it's cartoonish portrayal of the rich and yuppie somewhat softens the blow of its left wing message), it brings up so many interesting questions in an intelligent manner, portraying all its characters from a variety of angles and political stances, its hard not to like Cyril, but when he criticises a young 'active' Marxist follower for planning to open a market stall, he is shown to be hypocritical.Leigh' doesn't just direct, but also write, and the script is water tight. It is extremely witty, just full of emotion and very down to earth.This film is a very good snap shot of life in a variety of social situations and views in the churning world of the 1980s as the capitalistic London really began to boom. It is a flick that will not doubt have you smiling from cheek to cheek, yet also leave you feeling emotionally vulnerable and self-questioning.

Martin Bradley The title of Mike Leigh's first film was "Bleak Moments" and he's been having them, on and off, ever since. Leigh's films are the comedic equivalent of the Theatre of Cruelty. The pain running through a Mike Leigh movie far outweighs anything 'funny'. You wonder why they are called comedies at all. And the pain is usually the pain of belonging to a family unit. In "High Hopes" the family unit is Edna Dore's almost catatonic London pensioner, her appalling daughter Valerie and her equally appalling husband Martin and her son Cyril and his partner Shirley. Dore's next-door neighbours are a couple of Sloane Rangers with a double-barreled name and if Leigh has a fault it's that he can't help lampooning Valerie and Martin and the snooty neighbours. (Valerie is a clone of the awful Beverly in "Abigail's Party"). These are cartoon characters and they don't ring true.However Dore, who does virtually nothing, is quietly magnificent as the mother whose life has evaporated in front of her eyes and Philip Davis and Ruth Sheen are heartbreakingly real as the socialist son and the woman he loves but not enough to give her the child she craves. Indeed, Davis and Sheen give the kind of performances that seem to transcend mere 'acting' and which in a just world would be showered with prizes. (Sheen and Dore did win European Film Awards). In fact, everyone is first-rate even the caricatured neighbours and the lamentable Valerie. An uneven work, then, but when Davis and Sheen are on screen it's as good as Leigh gets.