Cinema adores friendships, especially those that change over time. There’s something about a solid exploration of the trials and tribulations of the companionships of two or more people that make for profoundly moving testaments to the human spirit. Mike Leigh implicitly understood this when he set out to make Career Girls, a slightly atypical film for the director, insofar as this wasn’t a film focused on family (as was one of his most common themes), nor is it one about someone being alienated from the world around them. Instead, it’s a solid, earnest comedy about two friends revisiting their past together, looking back in fond memory at the good times they shared, while still interrogating the reasons for their inevitable drifting apart. This is very much a film with Leigh’s wheelhouse, only deviating in the specific narrative nuances, and how he is focusing less on something as concrete as familial relations, and shifting his attention to a different kind of connection, the one that is formed when two kindred spirits find themselves encountering one another, and realizing their compatibility is the key to a lifelong friendship that somehow manages to stand both the test of time, and the challenges many of the strongest relationships tend to undergo from time to time. Career Girls is often considered a minor work in the director’s oeuvre, whether it be for its more intimate approach, or the simple storyline – but this is unmistakably the work of Leigh, a filmmaker who continued to push the boundaries of the form, while remaining firmly within his own self-imposed parameters of storytelling, from which he was able to relay some of the most sincere and moving commentary on the nature of lifelong camaraderie, and the many paths that lead to long-lasting connections.

Any discussion of a Mike Leigh film would be remiss to not mention the work of the actors from the outset. The director’s methods of writing are well-documented, where he and his cast undergo a lengthy period of rehearsals, where the dialogue is constructed in tandem between the actors and Leigh himself, who only guides them through a rough outline. Career Girls is not any different, and it could be one of the finest examples of it in practice, since it may have only two central characters, but they’re both tasked with the challenge of playing these two women across two distinct time periods, and asked to develop them in terms of personality, which is a challenging endeavour when you consider how much of this film is built on the idea that time brings change. Katrin Cartlidge and Lynda Steadman are tasked with bringing to life the characters of Hannah and Annie respectively (and a fascinating curio is that both names are derived from the same etymological root, which adds an interesting level of nuance to their relationship), and both actresses are absolutely incredible – Cartlidge, a veteran collaborator of the director (having previously been a scene-stealing presence in his magnum opus, Naked) turns in a truly impressive performance, playing the free-spirited Hannah, a woman who used to envision herself as a citizen of the world, only to be forced into a meaningless job, but yet still retaining the same level of animosity towards tradition. This is sharply contrasted with Steadman, whose performance as Annie may not be a complete opposite of what Cartlidge is doing, but instead complements her by shading in the blank spaces that exist in her performance. It’s a beautiful collaboration between two actresses that seem to implicitly understand one another, to the point where we genuinely believe that they are lifelong friends.

This level of authenticity is paramount to the success of Career Girls – after spending the previous few years making massively successful critical masterpieces like the aforementioned Naked and Secrets & Lies, which kept with the director’s style but expanded on it in interesting ways, this film served as a slight regression to his earlier, more simple days. If we break it down, Career Girls consists of a single narrative spread over a weekend as two old friends reunite for a few days, and revisit their past, both individually (shown in moments of quiet rumination), and together, which often leads to some hilarious but meaningful conversations. It’s in the use of flashbacks that adds the layer of complexity, since over the course of this weekend, both characters reflect back on the entire duration of their friendship, shown out of chronological order, but yet still somehow making perfect sense considering the value of the context we’re given before each foray into their shared past. It’s a quiet meditation on a friendship that saw an equal amount of good days and bad days, which proves that not even the most meaningful friendship can exist in perfect symbiosis. The simplicity with which Leigh executes this film is one of its most notable qualities – he allows the story to develop on its own, placing much of the plot in the hands of his two lead actresses, who tell as much of the story through their expressive movements and distant stares as the dialogue they developed in collaboration with the director, making it a truly copacetic process that is reflected in every moment of the film. It might not take bold risks in the traditional sense, but there’s still a raw, earnest honesty to this film that is difficult to attribute to anything other than the work of three terrific artists and their endeavour to represent the ups and downs of a friendship in as authentic a way as possible.

Leigh has a knack for keen observations of the human condition, and Career Girls is one of his most profound, especially since it isn’t centred on reaching a particular destination. The film is given the space to breathe, allowing it to jump around between different moments in the friendship, each new scene adding to the vivid tapestry of the relationship between Hannah and Annie. After a while, there seems to be a movement towards the concept of coincidences, where the unexpected arrival of a few figures from the past in the present-day lending the film a degree of magical realism, albeit the kind that is less intent on pulling us out of reality, instead implying that there is a level of fate that persists throughout our lives, meaning that even the most chance encounters have meaning. It’s Leigh at his most abstract, which is surprising considering the very subdued nature of the film surrounding it, and how he carefully shows the past and present as two very distinct periods in the lives of these two characters. It’s a fascinating and very meaningful portrait of a couple of people who may have grown apart, but remain vital in the other’s life – even though they haven’t kept in touch for six years, they still refer to one another as their “oldest friend”, which not only suggests a very deep kinship exists between these characters, but that there is an undying loyalty to a formative friendship that had seen many different challenges, whether it be paramours coming and going, or obstacles that came about as they started to assimilate into the “real world” of work, which only further prompted their gradual drifting apart, since it’s a common occurrence for friendships to weaken their strength when the two parties start to move away from the components that they had in common, whether it be a shared interest, common live space or even the most abstract ambition for the future.

Career Girls is far more than just a footnote in the career of Mike Leigh, and even though it has remained relatively unheralded, being caught between some major productions (the director would immediately start preparations for Topsy Turvy after completing this, a film that is just about as far removed from the simple, gentle sensibilities of Career Girls), and therefore suffering the unfortunate fate of being somewhat forgotten. It’s by no means a lesser effort – there aren’t many films that reflect Leigh’s peculiar fascination with the idea of human connection better than this one – which only makes the joy of discovering what an absolute delight it is even more potent. It’s an emotionally charged film, and there is an equal abundance of moments of genuine happiness as there are sequences of profound melancholy, which seems very appropriate for a film built entirely on exploring every significant moment in a friendship spread over many years. It offers unforgettable glimpses into the lives of these two characters, who remain some of Leigh’s finest creations, which is a testament to both his skillfulness in putting these characters together, and the work of Katrin Cartlidge and Lynda Steadman in developing them into some of the most nuanced and fascinating figures to ever appear in one of the esteemed director’s films. Beautifully meaningful and genuinely honest about its multitude of themes, Career Girls is a wonderful film that pays tribute to the idea of friendship, and how time may cause the bond to become a lot looser, but if the connection is genuine, nothing can fully break it, which is a message that extends beyond the confines of the film, and reminds us of the importance of cherishing every friendship, whether it be those that extend far into the past, or the more casual encounters that may very well end up playing a significant role in the future. Life is all about expecting the unexpected while valuing the friends we made along the way, which is one of the many poignant messages Leigh uses as the foundation for this wonderful, effervescent slice-of-life comedy.