By MARK GRIFFIN
Staff Writer
 

"Career Girls" is actually Mike Leigh's latest cinematic offering and it arrives fast on the heels of his teary Oscar contender, Secrets and Lies. In that film, director Leigh reunited a mother and daughter who never knew one another because of their differences. In "Career Girls" it's a pair of working class misfits that are reunited--their friendship enduring over a decade, despite their difference.

As the film opens, Annie (Lynda Steadman) is seen riding a train, on her way to visit former roommate Hannah (Karin Cartlidge). Suddenly, a winsome smile unfolds across Annie's face as she discovers that this getaway will not only be a weekend in London but a trip down memory lane.

Annie's knowing smile prompts the first of many flashbacks. We see the girls as they were upon entering college: Hannah, bullying and mercilessly blunt, shields herself from the pain of an alcoholic mother by gunning down everyone in her path with blistering insults. Some of her cruelest zingers are aimed at Annie, whose severe facial dermatitis and nervous twitching make her an easy target. "You're a walking open wound," Hannah later tells the achingly vulnerable Annie.

Eventually their assorted imperfections cause the girls to form a bond as they playfully beseech the best of Emily Bronte for romantic advice and dance around their dingy flat to music by "The Cure."

Part of the sad joy of "Career Girls" is immediately established in these early scenes as Leigh deftly shifts back and forth from past to present, with each over the shoulder glance providing ironic commentary on each step forward (and vice-versa). Throughout their weekend together, Annie and Hannah encounter an inordinate number of reminders-from coffee mugs to shared boyfriends--of the way things used to be.

Late in the film, Leigh has his assured, smartly dressed career girls encounter Ricky (Mark Benton). A troubled, schizophrenic savant from their college days, Ricky has fallen on hard times and is unable to forgive Annie for spurning his romantic advances from so many years before. In a moment of stunned recognition, the girls realize that our framed memories of people often dismiss the fact that those same people have gone right on living.

The scene reminded me of one from Elia Kazan's adaptation of "Splendor In the Grass" (Warner Bros., 1961) in which Natalie Wood, obsessed with first love Warren Beatty, goes to visit him after being confined to a sanitarium (where she was sent to get over him.) Dressed all in white, she expects to find the passionate lothario of their high school days but instead is greeted by a disheveled farmer in overalls with a wife and cranky baby. The kitchen is swarming with flies. In other words, Natalie . . . things change.

Despite its flaws, Career Girls feels like Leigh's warmest film to date. The lead actresses are both engaging and complement each other extremely well. For once, Leigh doesn't seem to be commenting on his characters but rather allowing audiences to discover them without editorial underlining. He also works well within a tricky structure, effortlessly traversing yesterday and today while pointedly reminding us that you can go home again, just don't be surprised if the front door looks a lot different.