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United Kingdom, France · 1997
Rated R · 1h 23m
Director Mike Leigh
Starring Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman, Kate Byers, Mark Benton
Genre Drama
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Annie was shy and anxious, and Hannah more outgoing, when they shared a student flat in the eighties. Now, six years after graduation, they are both successful and balanced. Over a weekend in London, they discover that they both have more emotional baggage from college than they let on.
While Career Girls has an overall somber tone, it is sparked by Leigh's humor and the actresses' - particularly Hannah's - verbal quickness... While the film may not be very satisfying to viewers, it is intriguing to watch Leigh's work and to see the women's characters develop. [22 Aug. 1997, p.6E]
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
A film that, despite its slight intentions, offers several lovely moments.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Career Girls is a wonderful diversion -- expert film making that's all the more effective because it seems so natural and effortless. The movie lacks the grit of Naked and the emotional impact of Secrets and Lies, but, because it effectively transforms two strangers into people worth caring about, Career Girls can be regarded as nothing less than a success.
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
There is the sense that Mr. Leigh, whose unusual collaborative method with actors is an essential facet of his writing and direction, is too willing to confuse tics with truth. Indeed, this time the actors' solipsism is more apparent.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
It isn't easy to get close to these two women. But the effort yields a rewarding take on the resiliency and therapeutic importance of friendship.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
What is the use of a film like this? It inspires reflection... Mike Leigh's films realize that for most people, most days, life consists of the routine of earning a living, broken by fleeting thoughts of where our efforts will someday take us--financially, romantically, spiritually or even geographically. We never arrive in most of those places, but the mental images are what keep us trying.
Mike Leigh has made one of his most modest pictures, although one that offers quite a few laughs and other quirky pleasures.
San Francisco Examiner by Walter Addiego
Less ambitious than the highly successful "Secrets & Lies," Career Girls has its own modest merits - a real sense of wit, much of it expressed in Hannah's sharp verbal sallies, and a melancholy truth that both women realize.
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