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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE HEN AND THE EGGS, May 23, 2007
LADYBIRD LADYBIRD, a movie you can also find here in the DVD standard but only in a zone 4 edition Ladybird Ladybird [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ], earned two awards at the 1994 Berlin Film festival. The whole filmography of director Ken Loach is composed of social or political movies and this corpus is one of the most interesting filmographies of the recent British cinematic production.
With this film, Ken Loach's intentions are clear, the director wants to denounce how social services and justice handle the case of so-called unfit mothers in Great Britain. I personally didn't know that justice could break the legal bond between a mother and her children and deny her the right to ever see them again. As a human being, this regulation shocks me even if I'm aware that it's often better to move away the children in peculiar cases. In the dramatic situation exposed by Ken Loach, the obvious thing to do is to force the mother to undergo a psychological treatment. Any other solution can only worsen the situation.
But don't be afraid, LADYBIRD LADYBIRD is not at all a TV documentary film because Ken Loach is also a talented director who knows how to harpoon the audience. Just think about the scene of the biscuits when Maggie and Jorge must receive in the British manner numerous social workers and keep quiet in front of them while they're in fact boiling. That's great cinema.
A VHS for your library.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
We the people, December 31, 2003
By A Customer
Ladybird is the story of a woman that can best be described as a 'townie' who loses one kid after another because of her uncorkable temper. When I say she is a townie, I mean she is a person who's watering hole, place of employment, and home are all in the same town. She will never leave this town. She first loses her kids after leaving them alone in her apartment one night while she heads off to her bar and one of her kids plays with matches and burns themselves. She meets a man, and they decide to have kids. The kids get taken away one after the next. She has no patience to deal with the social services people who show up in her house and politely ask her probing questions about her family life. The system is slow and bereft of results, and she blows her top at it, adding fuel to the fire. The thing is, she is not a maniac. She knows how to express her feelings one way, and noone is cutting her a break. Watching this, I couldn't believe child welfare could physically remove children from their mothers on nothing more than a gut feeling that she was an unfit mother. In one scene she has her newborn ripped out of her arms in a hospital bed. She fights and ducks the system and sabotages her chances at winning every chance she gets. She does it for a reason- she has absolutely no faith that the system now or ever will work in her favor. The way she sees it, the system has marked her on their black list and however she tries to work with it will only be met with some formality before more of her kids are taken away. And that fear dooms her. You'll hear it from other people, but the screenplay and the acting are so realistic that the movie has the quality of a documentary- in scenes with the british police it's like there's a news cameraman in the room filming the proceedings. Very passionate and worthwhile... the movie reminded me of the last line of dialogue in The Grapes of Wrath.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult and Riveting, December 5, 2004
This is one of those movies that I didn't enjoy, but I would recommend it to most people. Although I didn't feel enjoyment, I was extremely moved by this movie. I felt a gambit of emotions during this movie: sorrow, anguish, frustration, love, awe, and wonder.I felt anguish, sorrow, and frustration over the main character's predicament. She just can't seem to dig herself out of a hole. I felt love, awe, and wonder over the relationship she finds with Jorge. Chrissy Rock does an excellent job as a single mother in England that has a pattern of entering into unhealthy realtionships. As a result of an abusive relationship, she loses her four children. Her life takes a turn when she meets Jorge, a south american refugee. He is loving, kind, and patient. Together they start a life together, but her history comes back to haunt them. She does her best to change her destructive patterns, but unfortunately her character defects get the best of her. I was extremely moved by how real these depictions were. Her story ends in hope. If you like Ken Loach movies, you'll really appreciate this one. It was worth every tear. I highly recommend it.
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