I felt the film as a whole didn't work, becoming too dependent on unlikely coincidence- compare to the seemless use of coincidence and fate in films such as L'appartment and Three Colours:Red.

The lead actresses are great and the way that Leigh shoots the different eras is excellent; the film is too episodic- there are great moments (such as staring at an advert for the latest Cure record and Hannah stating she hasn't listened to them in years). The scene in the penthouse feels unlikely and close to caricature- something that is frequently levelled at Leigh. The scene where Annie and Hannah meet again at Euston (or Paddington?) is wonderfully observed- that difficult thing of meeting someone you knew again...

Warning- the acting is very mannered, drama students will love it and I'm sure it was great for the actors involved: Annie, Hannah and Ricky all seem on the verge of tourettes- these tics can be wearing on the viewer.

I found the structure of the film interesting at first, until the past scenes are cancelled out by the unlikely meeting points in the present. The scene where the girls find a messed up Ricky outside the closed down chip shop/ex-flat is nullified by a flashback to a prior time in Hartlepool where Ricky lost it. The emotional impact of his disintegration is reduced by the fact the girls have seen this behaviour before. Another irritating facet is Annie and the fact that her woes stem from...nothing much in particular.

There are many positive points, the late Cartlidge is great (as is Steadman); perhaps the film was rushed- Leigh as prolific as David Mamet and Woody Allen. The polytechnic lifestyle is captured perfectly by Leigh, though this has since been improved on by the excellent Me Without You (2001). Nice to hear lots of Cure songs from 1983/1984- even if there were other bands in the 1980's! Still, Career Girls is a sweet, slightly heartbreaking film- even if the present is hardly an improvement on the terrible past. Worth viewing, but no masterpiece.

Mike Leigh - the man's a genius
Review date: 2001-05-07 Rating: 10 out of 10

I'm a huge Mike Leigh fan and love all his films. This one, however, is quite possibly my favourite.

It tells the story of two young women who meet up about a decade after being at University together. The film shows how they were during their college days, and what they've now become.

It's a very smart and witty film, but also quite sad in places, and very touching. I think almost anyone could relate to this film, as we've all had friends as teenagers that we never kept in touch with after leaving school or college, but perhaps wish we had.

The performances are superb and memorable from all the cast - you couldn't ask for a more perfect film.

Career Girls is a bright and breezy take on college life.
Review date: 2001-02-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

I've got to say that Career Girls is my favourite Mike Leigh film. There's a positive feel to the production lacking in other work which features two young women, played by Lynda Steadman and Katrin Cartlidge who study at Polytechnic only to meet years later on. A magical set of events ensue when they renew old friendships over a weekend in a departure from the Director's usual naturalistic style. For anyone who's studied away from home this will bring back poignent memories. Tears, tantrums and the sheer individualism of young people are ably captured here by Mike Leigh. Hannah is a predictable femminist student, but my favourite character is Annie, incredibly shy, suffering from a skin complaint and often the butt of cruel jibes from her flatmate. When they re-unite alot of the insecurity has gone, yet neither have really moved on....... Both are still single with boring job, yet the beauty of the piece is the vivid depiction of ordinary students. It describes their lives through their loves, lies and heartbreaks, though there is a more sophisticated message here that coming from an ordinary background usually ensures an ordinary future. There is inherent criticism too of the characters failing to break out of their mundane lives and this is Leigh at his incisive best; not moralising or sentimentalising but being ruthlessly honest with his subjects and admitting that they can change their own lives. Wheras past projects are often flawed, Career Girls is a whole work of considered observation. It's characters more affluent and in control than in Bleak Moments and Nuts in May for instancen, but not as demanding as alot of the Leigh portfolio. Career Girls is a warm and genuinely comedic 83 minutes of viewing and I would strongly reccomend anyone out there to buy it, for no other reason than to sample Katrin Cartlidge's outstanding interpretation of a shy and stuttering eighties student.

Master Piece
Review date: 2001-01-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

Having read the reviews of this film I could have been forgiven for believing that it was a rather unintelligent movie. This on futher examination is a million miles from the truth. Career girls gives an incredible insight into the lives of it's two main charecters and how their lives spin out of control when both at 8 years of age (this is no convenience of plot) their fathers leave the family home never to return. The effect on the two girls lives is almost like quantum mechanics they explode fom this life changing moment in completely different directions and are oposites in every way. But like oposites they attract and together they are Yin and Yang. As one of the girls in the film says 'together we make one person you and I'. This is an intelligent way of dealing with the subject of desertion as the two charecters seem to help each other (especially at the end of the film) with their respective knock on emotional problems. This isn't all the film contains and I have trouble putting into words a lot of what I felt about the film, but I will add that I was nearly in tears for most of it!!!

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