Sorry We Missed You In cinemas on Friday
ANDY’S RATING:
THEY say you get mellower with age, but it seems righteous anger is what gets 83-year-old Ken Loach out of bed each morning.
Sorry We Missed You is the message left on the doorstep by delivery driver Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen). But veteran director Loach and writer Paul Laverty are also focusing on those left behind by the “gig economy”.
This powerful drama begins on an ominously upbeat note.
Former labourer Ricky Turner is about to turn his life around with a well-paid job in a package delivery firm in Newcastle. “You’ll be your own boss,” says supervisor Maloney (Ross Brewster) promising flexible hours and fat wage packets.
The company will even “rent” him a van, although Maloney reckons buying one of his own will lead to more money and more freedom. As this is a Ken Loach film, we don’t believe a word of it. Zero contract means zero rights and eye-watering penalties if you don’t meet punishing targets. Before his hard-working hero learns the painful truth, we get to know his family. His wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) is a home-help nurse who can’t give her “clients” the care they deserve after her job was contracted out of the NHS.
The performances are heart-rending and we get a smattering of comedy. But as the miseries pile up, this feels like a grim film even for Loach and Laverty.
Does this movie have a broadenough appeal to affect the political changes the film-makers yearn for? I’m not so sure.
But the next time I find a card on my doormat and a soggy parcel on my doorstep, I’ll know to curse the company, not the driver.