Sorry We Missed You (2019)

Directed by: Ken Loach | 100 minutes | drama | Actors: Debbie Honeywood, Kris Hitchen, Rhys Stone, Nikki Marshall, Katie Proctor, Harriet Ghost, Ross Brewster, Stephen Clegg, Simran Kaur, Vicky Hall, Alfie Dobson, Micky McGregor

We all do it, and more and more often: online shopping. While more retail properties in the cities become vacant every week, the internet department stores are working overtime to get our orders delivered on time. What a luxury: ordering from the comfort of your home and your package will be delivered to your front door the next day – or sometimes even the same day. But all this convenience also comes with many drawbacks. Not only are all those trips that have to be made to deliver the parcels bad for the environment, the courier is also under heavy pressure. If he (or she) cannot get rid of the package because you are not at home, there will be consequences. The package has to be returned and that costs the courier (and the courier company and possibly also the sending party) money. In addition, they must adhere to a rigid delivery schedule; If you waste too much time, it will cost you money. In short, the life of a courier is not a bed of roses. For the British Ken Loach, the king of the kitchen-sink drama, the grueling conditions under which parcel deliverers have to work are an ideal starting point for a gruesome story about a working-class family that comes under heavy pressure by the towering demands of society. imposes on them.

Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen) is a forty-something from Newcastle who lost his job in construction during the credit crisis and was forced to exchange his owner-occupied house for a rental home. Now having to find another way to make ends meet, he decides to start delivering packages as standalones. He teams up with Gavin Maloney (Ross Brewster), who runs a thriving parcel depot. Ricky can rent a van from him, but because he will lose a lot of money, he goes for option two: buy his own second-hand van. But because the Turner family barely has enough money to get through the month, he has to sell his wife Abbie’s (Debbie Honeywood) car. And that while she herself desperately needs her car as a home care worker. However, Ricky manages to convince her and Abbie goes by bus to visit her clients. Ricky soon discovers that parcel delivery is a job that is in high demand from couriers: there is a strict time schedule for the parcels to be delivered, the days are long and if you don’t deliver your parcel on time then you have a problem. Gavin soon turns out to be a true slave driver who makes his employees pay for their free hours or days out of their own pocket. It is also difficult for Abbie to get from A to B and both have long days. Not only themselves, but also their two children – teenage son Seb (Rhys Stone) and ten-year-old Lisa Jane (Katie Proctor) – suffer. Seb is becoming more and more rebellious and his sister eats alone almost every night because her parents don’t come home until after nine and fall asleep on the couch from fatigue.

For more than half a century, Ken Loach – now 82 years old – has stood on the barricades to expose social abuses through his films. No filmmaker has represented the (mainly British) working class as well as he has, and with films such as ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (2016, won a Palme d’Or and a BAFTA) and ‘Sorry We Missed You’ he proves that he still represents the interests of this group with fervor and conviction. In fact, with ‘Sorry We Missed You’ he delivers one of his strongest films; a deeply human drama that hits like a sledgehammer because it ruthlessly exposes the harsh reality of contemporary society with its ‘gig economy’. Precisely by telling the story from the perspective of an average family and setting aside the pedantic tone that sometimes tends to dominate some of his films, the film has an enormous emotional impact. The true story of Don Lane, a 53-year-old diabetic from Dorset who was so afraid of losing his job as a parcel delivery person that he missed important doctor’s appointments, with fatal consequences, is at the heart of the film. Ricky and Abbie are not characters, but real people who could live next door to you. Initially, the job as an independent courier seems to be the solution to all their problems, or at least the financial ones. The shrewd and uncompromising Maloney, wonderfully played by amateur (!) Brewster, captivates Ricky with empty phrases (“You become the master of your own destiny”) and boasts that his depot has the best numbers in the entire region. However, he does not mention what ruthless methods he uses to achieve this. Slowly but surely, we see how Ricky’s job – but also Abbie’s, who does not get paid for her travel time and sometimes encounters unexpected events that require extra time, while she does not receive any extra money for it – increasingly puts a strain on the family.

The acting is of an exceptional level. Debbie Honeywood – also a debutante! – moves as the good-natured Abbie who, despite all the troubles her family finds themselves in, refuses to sink into self-pity. Complaining is not in her dictionary, even if she shows despair in her eyes at times. In her interactions with her clients, she is genuine and kind, just as she will never lash out at her children. Because in addition to that hard work, she is also the one who does most of the work at home (ensuring that the children can warm up their prakkie, for example). This woman immediately embraces you. Ricky is more fickle, letting his anger run wild at times, but he is also a decent human being on the inside whose main goal is to take good care of his family. Kris Hitchen – who has only been acting since he was 40 and had previously worked as a plumber – is the most experienced actor, although he also has a fairly modest resume. As Ricky, he constantly has to balance between his duties as breadwinner, father and husband, but he is weighed down by frustration, fatigue, restlessness, discontent and anger. How long can he go on until his soul breaks? Loach often works with unknown and (relatively) inexperienced actors and that always works out well because they naturally blend into their roles. The dialogues – the screenplay is by Loach’s regular writer Paul Laverty – are also taken from life and here and there a light or funny moment has been added, such as the inveterate Manchester United fan Ricky during his delivery round. stick with an equally avid Newcastle United fan. The scene in which he takes his daughter on his route also makes the corners of his mouth curl, because it expresses tenderness and is at the same time heartwarming and charming.

Tensions begin to mount as Ricky is increasingly forced to choose between his job (and thus his wallet) and his fatherly duty. For example, when son Seb, who would rather skip school to spray graffiti with his friends than go to school and thus become an extra concern for his parents, is suspended from school and has to be criticized by the school director. In their often violent altercations, the boy puts the finger on his father’s sore spot, which of course frustrates Ricky even more. In a controlled manner, the level of despair and desperation is gradually ramped up, working towards a handful of highlights that hit like a bomb: Abbie telling Maloney the truth over the phone after Ricky is killed by miscreants while delivering cell phones robbed and beaten up, for example (while the entire emergency room can listen in); a rare moment when Abby lets herself go, but which shows that her family is above all else and that she is worried about her husband. Also the wise words of a policeman towards Seb, who has been caught shoplifting, cut in. ‘Sorry We Missed You’ is an authentic and deeply human drama about a social problem that we often ignore. The acting is very strong and the events in the Turner family will not leave anyone untouched. Ken Loach proves once again that he is far from forgotten about filmmaking!