REVIEW
I, Daniel Blake
Stars: 4.0
Starring Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Kate Rutter, Kema Sikazwe, Steven Richens and Gavin Webster
Directed by Ken Loach
Written by Paul Laverty
Rated: 14A for coarse language
Runtime: 100 minutes
I, Daniel Blake screens on Mon., Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Arden Theatre as part of the St. Albert Public Library's Reel Mondays fundraiser. All proceeds go towards producing the St. Albert Readers' Festival, also known as STARFest.
Tickets are $20 for each screening or $65 for a season ticket for all five movies. They can be purchased at the customer service desk at the library. Call 780-459-1530 or visit www.sapl.ca for more information.
Well, here’s a movie that many MLAs, MPs and city councillors should take in. I, Daniel Blake is practically a primer to help bureaucrats understand the red tape and frustrations that Regular Joe and Jane must endure when dealing with some government agencies. This movie by deft director Ken Loach would have been approved by both Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller.
Daniel Blake (played with reserved grit by Dave Johns) is nearly 60, still under retiring age but a heart attack prevents him from his work as a joiner. When we first meet him, it is only in voiceover as we overhear him in discussions with a government unemployment worker. If your blood doesn’t boil in that first sequence then perhaps you should check your icy veins for a pulse.
Loach has a grand way of touching on edgy nerves. He’s a socialist and a social critic for sure but it’s his formidable directing prowess that earns him his credit. One doesn’t win the Palme d’Or twice just for showing up to the game. His messages might be pretty obvious but, as a viewer, you’re still pleased to have him beat you over the head with the tender bat he wields.
Blake’s doctor says that he isn’t well enough to go back to work, but the government officers say that he won’t get his benefits unless he’s actively applying for work. Sounds like a conundrum if ever there was one. His situation goes further downhill because all of his applications must be filled out online, which is difficult to impossible since Blake is computer illiterate.
In suffering the bureaucrats and their forms, he makes friends with a young mother named Katie (Hayley Squires) who finds herself similarly under the thumb of a Job Centre worker after she shows up late for an appointment, her young children in tow.
He’s a guy who isn’t afraid to stick up for the underdog so Blake helps her get by: fixing things around her apartment, showing her how to survive, commiserating through all of the ordeals. At some point, he becomes so fed up with how the government’s wheels spin that he takes to miscreancy to make a more public case for progress and change. I remember watching Turk 182 in the 1980s and having much the same feelings about the establishment. IDB is far more refined and so the punch it wields makes it more emotional and more substantial for North American tastes.
Needless to say, this isn’t a Hollywood movie but a realist’s tale of how the system works. Moreso, how it doesn’t. Loach is considered a populist for his ‘everyman’ sensibilities in what stories he chooses to tell. Expect these stories to be very well told. Just don’t expect a happy ending.
