A small film featuring twitchy performances but distinguished by some touching scenes.

A small film featuring twitchy performances but distinguished by some touching scenes.

Career Girls is British director Mike Leigh`s follow-up to his Palme d`Or-winning Secrets and Lies. It`s a small film that focusses on a weekend reunion of two former flatmates - shy insecure Annie - Lynda Steadman - has come from out of town to London to visit the brash ascerbic Hannah - Katrin Cartlidge. The film intercuts between the weekend during which the two friends visit apartments for sale and the past when both girls were students and extremely twitchy... Hannah because of her family background and Annie because of the dreadful dermatitis which disfigures her face... You may find yourselves a bit twitchy as you watch the performances of the two actresses in the segments from the past. Lynda Steadman is particularly grotesque. But I`m a Katrin Cartlidge fan and I went with her as she portrays Hannah as making a vain attempt to keep the world at bay with her confronting behaviour. Far more effective are the present-day scenes and particularly funny is the visit to the apartment of a coked-out guy who wants to get on to Hannah. You wonder to begin with what on earth these two women can have to base a friendship on - by the end of the weekend you have an idea. Career Girls is modestly produced and directed but distinguished by some touching scenes and the dignity of Cartlidge as an actor.