Genial hero makes a bureaucratic battle bearable
‘ I, Daniel Blake” tells the story of an honest man trying to do the right thing who is thwarted by idiocy, arrogance and a byzantine bureaucracy at every turn.
It’s as frustrating as it is relatable. And probably necessary. Ken Loach came out of a short retirement to make the film, which lacerates the British benefits system, a mess that serves as a stand- in for any heartless bureaucracy that will be recognizable to anyone who, like the title character, waits 48 minutes on hold for crucial assistance that almost certainly won’t be forthcoming.
Subtle, it’s not, but it is effective
Daniel ( comic Dave Johns) is a 59- year- old carpenter who has had a heart attack, which caused him to fall from scaffolding. We meet him ( or hear him, actually, over the opening credits) answering a series of absurd questions relating to his health and his ability to go back to work. His doctors say he is not at all ready. A clerk disagrees, so the proud Daniel is denied benefits. An appeal sounds easy enough in theory.
But not at all in practice. The first time he visits the benefits office in person, Daniel gets kicked out before he can even get started. That’s because he comes to the aid of Katie ( Haley Squires), a single mother of two kicked out of her flat who has committed the unforgivable sin of being a few minutes late, having gotten on the wrong bus.
Daniel befriends Katie and her children, showing them tricks to warm their unheated apartment and carving toys for the kids. He senses their need — a scene in which Katie’s daughter comes into her mother’s bed at night, crying that school kids made fun of her because her shoes were falling apart, is heartbreaking — but, a widower and loner, he clearly enjoys their company.
It beats everything else going on in his life. He must work at least 35 hours a week looking for a job, even though if anyone was hiring ( they aren’t), he couldn’t take the offer, on his doctors’ orders. It’s a miserable, Kafkaesque cycle, overseen by heartless bureaucrats.
If it sounds bleak, that’s because it is. There are a few lighter scenes with Daniel’s neighbor who is trying to sell bootleg sneakers. But for the most part it’s one bad break after another, a trail of frustration that Daniel longs to leave but can’t.
As with any Loach film, there are no Hollywood conventions here, just a realism that drives the story. He won’t let up, and at times the vibe is almost suffocating. But Johns makes it all bearable. Inviting, even. You don’t just root against the system. You root for him, and that’s an important distinction.