Movie Review - Sorry We Missed You

The feeling after watching this movie –Sorry We Missed You……

(https://images.app.goo.gl/MoVvdTD3kKX7p7TJ6)

★Synopsis

"Sorry We Missed You" is a British family drama movie released in 2019, directed by Ken Loach, starring Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, and Katie Proctor. The story was told about after the impact of the finance tsunami, long-unemployed Ricky finally found a job as a logistics driver, but was told that the work was not only self-employed, but also had to bring its own truck to deliver the goods at a specific time. 

Under economic pressure, they had to sell their wife’s ​​courtesy car in exchange. And Ricky and Abbie are struggling with their work and have no time to accompany each other and their adolescent children. The deteriorating family relationship also exposes them to major challenges.

★The most important is value and change

The director Ken Loach, who has been shortlisted for the Festival de Cannes many times and is known as "British movie conscience", often has a strong "social realism" in his works, whether it is “The Wind That Shakes the Barley”, tells the brothers reflect the impact of the environment on individuals, or “The Angel’s Share” uses a group of society marginalized people to struggle to present the problem of youth unemployment in the UK, or "I, Daniel Blake" criticizes the rigidity of the social welfare system and bureaucratic corruption through a carpenter with heart disease. 

These works lock the plot to the little people in the bottom society or the working class, and speak for them with the description of the real society, and this time "Sorry We Missed You" is no exception.

I think Ken Loach set the story stage of "Sorry We Missed You" in Newcastle in the north of Britain is not without reason. 

This town which was famous for the shipbuilding and steel industry in the past, faces industrial transformation in recent years. Unlike the rapid pace of economically developed and prosperous metropolises such as Manchester or London. Most people still maintain a relatively traditional conservative and hard-working style. 

Although their days seem bland, they retain the closest ones, humanity, with a down-to-earth optimistic life attitude, enjoying the simplest goodness between family and people. However, because of the heavy burden caused by sudden economic pressure, these simple people are gradually crushed.

With the deliver encountering a customer who is not at home and unable to successfully receive, the note attached to the parcel, "Sorry We Missed You" as the movie title. We can see that this movie is another Ken Loach showed his work on labor care.

                                                                                    (https://images.app.goo.gl/3asXLorLjF5fuKLq8)

★The heavy pressure in reality

This movie combined with the financial turmoil of 2008 and the era when electronic digital and online shopping have gradually become popular. The labor work because of the financial turmoil bears a huge burden debt. 

The father Ricky, who had to support his family caught a life-saving straw and tried to use it to reverse the slump situation. However, after betting on the assets of the whole family, it didn’t expect that because of the rapid evolution of technology and the lack of corresponding legal protections, the unequal relationship between the enterprise and the labor, the only thing that eventually greeted him was that he had to face the risks by himself and not get what he deserved about labor rights, etc.

There is no doubt that because of the extremely successful character shaping and giving the audience a clear sense of the warmth emanating from the camera, this movie became a very heartbreaking movie. The whole movie is centered on the family. 

This family of four uses the usual interaction process to bring out the role relationship and strengthen the emotional connection between the family members. So as to compare with the current social situation at the time, even if the laborers worked hard and even sacrificed their families for work, they eventually became more and more poor.

★The dilemma of the little figures

Ken Loach is very good at portraying the kind of helpless and real reaction and voice of the characters in the dilemma. "Sorry We Missed You" maintains the overall tone of most of his works full of pain. 

Ricky's hard work of returning home late, and the rebellious behavior of his adolescent son, through the conflicts aggravated by the wrong communication methods between the family members, bring out the little figures will always be chased by time, but facing the unknown tomorrow they don't have much time to think about, they can only go one step at a time and be at loss and helpless.

                                                                                    (https://images.app.goo.gl/F4zgkiovViLghWpf7)

★The problem the laborers face

The movie presents the current situation that the profit-oriented enterprises under the market economy of the capital society in order to reduce costs and maximize profit, thus sacrificing the basic rights and interests of the bottom laborers. 

What ’s crueler is that this movie set family as the main core when the society can't fully implement the labor-related laws and regulations, and laborers must compete with each other in order to live, the original warm love and care between family members becomes a burden. 

So that parents in order to support their families and give their children a better life, this situation has become an accomplice to the further deterioration of the social working environment.

★The saddest fact

I hate the feeling of depression in the whole movie. The fear of accidents over the character almost pressured me to suffocate. 

Even if there is a daughter in the family who always considers the intimateness of the parents, the son's rebellion still cares about the family. but all covered by the contradictions, helplessness and sadness in the movie. 

The sun that breaks through the thick clouds in the distance seems to be just a goal set by this society so that we can continue to work hard, just like the zero-hour economy under the sign of "free" and "flexible" may seem to have a chance to reappear, but it is just the beginning of falling into another abyss, and it can't help but feel completely disappointed in this society.

★Conclusion

On the whole, I don't think that the encounters of the characters are because they are particularly embarrassed. On the contrary, I will regard this incident as a microcosm of the bottom society. It is a situation caused by many difficulties and a chain effect. "Sorry, We Missed you" is based on this inevitable that it would always happen in the free market. 

Through the encounter of the characters in the movie aroused our attention and sympathy, and stimulated the audience's reflection on real life. At this time, we can do more than just keeping concerned and considerate, and actively supporting the formulation of relevant laws and regulations, in order to get more complete protection of labor rights, but also to think about ways to modify the existing economic model. I think this is what “Sorry We Missed You” wants to show.

.