Hyde Park Pick: Hard Truths

The two grown up children are Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Chantelle (Michele Austin) and much of the film is made up of us spending time with the siblings, both together and separately. In that time we’re able to appreciate the differences of their characters, and how that has shaped the families they have built for themselves.

Pansy’s depression and anxiety are bound up together as one inexpressible force that manifests as lashings of vile uncontrollably let loose at her sister, her husband and son, and strangers in her daily life, in equal measure.  Her discomfort with the world feels all the more stinging when considered hand in hand with Chantelle’s humour and warmth.

Despite the charisma of Chantelle, Pansy is the film’s heroine but she is also a tough character to spend time with and to know. Shadows of her reminded me of people in my life and the complexity of the crisis she is experiencing is both complex and hard to watch. The challenge of this makes the impact and pure joy of Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s performance all the more phenomenal.

We have seen too little of Jean-Baptiste over the last three decades in UK productions. She’s been open at expressing how much more opportunity she has found as a woman, specifically a Black woman, over in the states as opposed to here in the UK. Watching her bubble and shine in Hard Truth’s is a stinging reminder of what has been lost in our film culture as a result. She is an electric performer and even when voicing words that in isolation feel hard and cold, it’s impossible not to feel a pure form of compassion for her character. If I could hug her I would. Maybe that’s the sequel.

Hard Truths is showing daily at HPPH from Fri 07 Feb. You can book tickets here.