Let’s dispense with the suspense. Mike Leigh has been nominated for an Academy Award seven times and has won it zero times. That seems wrong.
He has a Palme d’Or, a Golden Lion, five decades of films that taught generations of actors what unglamorous truth looks like and one of the most distinctive bodies of work in modern British cinema. What he does not have is an Oscar — and based on the reviews and reactions out of the Telluride Film Festival, where the film bowed Friday night, it’s about damn time he got one.
“Tender Loving Care” arrives carrying the weight none of Leigh’s previous films did. At 83, and contending with myosotis, a muscle-wasting condition that kept him from his own Telluride premiere, Leigh has said this is most likely his last film. Bleecker Street opens it Dec. 4 after a fall festival run the industry reserves for titles it takes seriously.
That makes the season’s obvious question unavoidable: What should the Academy do with Mike Leigh’s final film? The answer is not — give him an Oscar because he is 83.
It is — watch the movie, and you’ll see why you’d want to.
