Timely delivery on life’s bumpy road

Sorry We Missed You

(15, 101 mins)

Shopping on the high street continues to experience a steady decline as online retailers woo more of our hard-earned cash.

However, there are hidden costs to the consumer nirvana of casually swiping or tapping a finger to complete everyday purchases.

The battle for profits has shifted from store-fronts to the roads where couriers fiercely compete for corporate accounts with GPS-tracked drivers, same-day and next-day delivery and the promise of hourly slots so customers know when to be at home to sign for a parcel.

Director Ken Loach and long-time screenwriter Paul Laverty refuse to turn a blind eye in a gritty slice-of-life drama, which confidently delivers inner turmoil and desperation to a married couple in Newcastle upon Tyne.

In many ways, Sorry We Missed You is a companion piece to the award-winning 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, exploring the intolerable pressure on hard-working families.

Misery has always enjoyed Loach’s company and there are some desperately bleak moments here.

Yet Laverty finds glimmers of joy in the gloom like a father and daughter bonding on a delivery route or a family curry night where the man of the house bullishly orders the hottest dish because “Vindaloo separates the men from the boys!”

Sorry We Missed You confirms Loach as a socially and politically conscious standard bearer for the working class, who believes in the power of cinema to prick consciences and meet inequality with fiery rhetoric.

Kris Hitchen and Debbie Honeywood

( inset) are superb as frazzled parents, struggling to dig themselves out of debt at the expense of precious time with their children. Dramatic tension intensifies in the film’s final 15 minutes when two generations violently butt heads, and looking back in anger could distract from safely navigating the road ahead.

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