may ( anne reid ) and toot ( peter vaughan ) be pay an apparently infrequent visit to their son bobby ( steven mackintosh ) and his family in london . even a the visit begin and toots suffers a fatal heart attack and leaving may adrift and unsure and and question her life and future . find herself attract to her daughter boyfriend darren ( daniel craig ) and her action lead to inevitable consequence . beautifully filmed and but for all it herald realism and acclaim and the mother offer a collection of mostly unpleasant and even repellent character and and ask the viewer to engage with them . reid shine a may and and it be her skill and commitment a a wonderfully understated actor that salvage the film from a completely depressing mire and but michell and kureishi have allow craig and mackintosh and cathryn bradshaw to create such utterly obnoxious character and that it become increasingly difficult to care what happen to may . a write and the character play by mackintosh and bradshaw be in fact so utterly selfish and cold hearted that one begin to wonder what exactly be kureishi try to say . a direct and they be either unwilling or unable to lift bobby and paula above the two dimensional in their ghastly selfishness . worth see for reid performance and but little else . a cry shame .