‘This is my family, and I’m telling you now, nobody messes with my family…’
It is astonishing that at the ripe old age of 83 Ken Loach is still at the forefront of British cinema. His last film, I, Daniel Blake, was one of his best, and he has followed that up with another emotive and gritty social commentary. Rather than the elaborately labyrinthine benefits system, Loach has turned his gaze to the issue of zero hour contracts, specifically focusing on delivery drivers.
Ricky (Kris Hitchen) is a down on his luck Manc living in Newcastle with his family. His wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) works as a home carer, and between them, they decide to buy a van so that can Ricky can attempt ‘being his own boss’ working as a delivery driver for fictional postage company PDF. As this is a Ken Loach film, things quickly start to unravel…
The caveat that must be applied here is that Loach suggests there are thousands of people living through this scenario. Let’s unpick that for a second. Protagonist Ricky loses his mortgage and his job in the 2008 financial crash. He then can’t get a job elsewhere and ends up forced into the gig economy. So far, so plausible. He has a tearaway teenage son who is constantly getting in trouble at school. Fine. His young daughter starts to suffer from anxiety. Pushing it a litte. From there, various mishaps start to befall Ricky culminating in the films gutting conclusion. This is not to belittle the myriad of unfortunate people that are stuck in the gig economy, but boy does Ricky attract bad luck. His scenario is surely at the more extreme end of examples of people that have been destroyed by the system.
Having said that, my household receives packages from various delivery companies almost every day and while I would like to think that I am always warm and polite with the delivery drivers, as soon as my parcel is in my hand, I never give them another seconds thought. Why would I? Sorry We Missed You forces its audience to humanise those on the other side of the van door. And this is why Loach is so powerful as a filmmaker. He takes those without a voice and he brings them to the forefront, without condescension and without patronising anyone.
It helps, of course, that he has an eye for talent. As with many Loach productions, the cast here are pretty much unknowns and, as ever, they all pull together to produce a collection of nuanced and touching performances. Debbie Honeywood is particularly affecting as Ricky’s long suffering wife Abbie and a mention to for Katie Procter who knocks it out of the park as Liza – the tough but vulnerable baby of the family.
Sorry We Missed You is not just an important film. It’s a thoughtful, well acted, entertaining movie and this is the key to Loach’s success. A message is nothing if the film itself doesn’t work. Loach is the master of combining social commentary with deft filmmaking to produce something that thrives as both.