Director:Â Ken Loach
Cast: Dave Johns,  Hayley Squires,  Dylan McKiernan,  Briana Shann,  Mick Laffey,  Harriet Ghost
Rating:Â 15
Running Time:Â 100 mins
Release Date:Â 21/10/2016
Given the ongoing effects of the Brexit vote amongst other issues going on in the UK, it is always down to the responsibility of film-makers to reflect the present climate and feeling of what people can go through, perhaps to offer empathy and identity, a factor that has been prevalent whenever people go to the cinema to lose or find themselves.
Ken Loach, even in the latter years of his career, continues to define the essence of solid, thought-provoking British Social Drama and I don’t think he has ever done it better lately than in his new film, I, DANIEL BLAKE, which won this year’s Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Posters and advertising around London proudly state how great the film is – and I am inclined to agree with them. This is a thoughtful, balanced and sensitively handled drama that encompasses much of the world of Jobseekers and individuals who, through no fault of their own, have to take what the State gives them.
Daniel Blake (Dave Johns) is an out-of-work joiner in Newcastle who has been deemed as not fit to work by his doctors, but which has been deemed able by the State. A technophile as such, his efforts to use a computer to make his case for benefits are desperate and he gets repeatedly frustrated when he turns up at the local JobCentre Plus (a situation I know well from a couple of years ago) and the parrot-fashion process of the advisors and staff who request he goes on line and makes an effort to look for work. During one of his visits, he encounters the desperation of a young single mother-of-two, Katie (Hayley Squires), a Londoner who has been forced to move to Newcastle to secure suitable housing. Daniel offers to help Katie with things in her place, whilst trying his best to secure his own welfare in an ongoing struggle with the Department of Work and Pensions….
If you liked LOOKING FOR ERIC and other recent offerings of Loach, you will enjoy this one as much, if not more. However, I think this is a movie that demands to be seen by a wide cross-section of people, not just fans of kitchen-sink drama. Johns is excellent as the bewildered but believing Blake, whilst newcomer Hayley Squires offers tremendous potential for the future in her determined but fragile demeanour as Katie. As with the best of Loach, there are very funny moments that come out of the character and situation, which are more honest than a lot of British Sitcoms try to convey. Paul Laverty’s script, created after a long period of research, with help from DWP employees who chose to remain anonymous, but acknowledged during the film’s end credits, is one of the best ever.
I, DANIEL BLAKE is a seminal moment in British Cinema – honest, believing and uncompromising in its desire to expose the world the characters inhabit. A modern classic.
Verdict
