Marianne Jean-Baptiste tests our limits of empathy in 'Hard Truths'
Of all the movie protagonists you might have seen this year, none is quite like Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths.”
Of all the movie protagonists you might have seen this year, none is quite like Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths.”
Pansy, a middle-aged woman in contemporary London, is foul-tempered from beginning to end. She spends her days in evident pain that she unleashes upon all those around her, including her husband Curtley (David Webber), her 20-something son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) and most anyone else she encounters. Her venom might fall on a supermarket cashier or a furniture-shopping couple who dare to put their feet up on an ottoman. Heaven help the man who wants her parking spot.
For everyone, Pansy is a test. She tests the patience and empathy of her family, just as she does the viewer. She’s not an antihero, she’s anti-everything.
“The world is full of Pansys. People live with other people’s conditions,” Jean-Baptiste says. “Often I’ve met people who have just been enraged, because you didn’t see them in the car park pulling into the space. You go: It can’t just be about me. How did you get that angry about something so stupid? You don’t know what they’re going through or how they got there.”
