Title – Sorry We Missed You (2019)

Director – Ken Loach (The Wind that Shakes the Barley)

Cast – Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor

Plot – Struggling working class couple Rickey (Hitchen) and Abbie Turner (Honeywood) find themselves battling to keep on top of mounting debt and family dramas as they try to stay positive in the midst of an economy and system that seems to have abandoned them.   

“This is my family, and I’m telling you now, nobody messes with my family”

Review by Eddie on 20/05/2020

While you may never find Sorry We Missed You in the horror section of any film library, Ken Loach’s incendiary examination of modern day working conditions and the plight of the lower-middle class citizens that populate various countries around the globe is most certainly a horrifying watch.

Never one to hold back from voicing the stories of the little people, the ones Hollywood and media often forget to tell, Loach continues to imbue his films with a heart and soul many similar productions would struggle to maintain, despite the fact the respected filmmaker is well into his twilight years at the age of 83.

Inspired by the working life situations of many in his country of England, the “gig” economy Loach explores through the plight of parcel delivery driver Rickey and his family that includes wife and home care nurse Abbie, his rebellious teenage son Seb and his loving daughter Liza Jae, is one that will feel eerily familiar to many of us around the globe, whether by our own circumstances or through those of friends and family.

Sorry almost needs its own pre-credits warning before unsuspecting viewers get too shell-shocked by the pure bleakness and believability of Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty tale, one that when watched in the current climate the world finds itself in today makes for solemn and reflective movie watching, with Loach uninterested in bringing any type of relief to the travails of Ricky’s life or those that inhabit it.

As is the case with so many of Loach’s film, such as his last effort I, Daniel Blake or his critical favourite The Wind that Shakes the Barley, one of the key strengths to this dramatic affair is Loach’s ability to give his films an almost documentary like sense of realism, a facet that is well and truly present throughout the entirety of Sorry’s runtime.

While they’re not the type of showy performances that are likely to be seen at awards season, the performances from the core cast of Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone and Katie Procter are incredibly well-realised.

You feel every moment or pang of pain these characters feel, there’s many a time when you almost wish Loach would stop with his punishment of them as they feel like genuinely real figures in a tale that cuts too the core of the problem with societies new form of working slavery, with credit needing to be paid for an ensemble that were able to band together to bring Loach’s searing vision to screen.

Final Say –

Depressing but important, Sorry We Missed You is an extremely tough watch, a film that should not be viewed should you find yourself in a current rough patch but Loach’s ability to shine a light on a horrifying aspect of modern life is haunting stuff, without ever trying to sugar coat its subject matter with an easy solution.

4 ½ Indian takeaway meals out of 5