'I, Daniel Blake' has focused story, strong acting

'Daniel,' which is directed by Ken Loach, centers on a widower woodworker who finds it difficult to get National Health benefits. Dave Johns comes across as an Everyman caught in the gears of an unfeeling system.

|
Joss Barratt/Sundance Selects
'I, Daniel Blake' stars Dave Johns (l.), Hayley Squires, Briana Shann, and Dylan McKiernan.

Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is yet another in a long line of Loach movies about social injustice in England as refracted through the lives of the underclass. I’ve often found his films to be more socially aware than dramatically involving and wondered why he didn’t simply make documentaries instead of the middling docudrama-like movies he usually offers up.

“I, Daniel Blake” is one of his better efforts because the story is powerfully focused and the acting is strong, which is not always the case with Loach's films.

Daniel Blake, a woodworker, is a widower from Newcastle, England whose recent heart attack supposedly qualifies him for National Health benefits. The bureaucrats, however, have made it so infuriatingly difficult for him to obtain those benefits that he might as well be appearing in a Brit version of “Catch-22.” (Example: His doctors say he is ineligible for work but, by applying for the employment allowance, which he needs major computer assistance to even fill out, he is by definition deemed fit to work.) 

Loach’s low-key naturalism, which barely masks his fury at the injustices perpetrated on screen, is matched by Dave Johns's performance as Daniel. Without seeming pretentious about it, he comes across as an Everyman caught in the gears of an unfeeling system. As the young, indigent mother he befriends, Hayley Squires equals his performance. Grade: B+ (Rated R for language.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'I, Daniel Blake' has focused story, strong acting
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/1230/I-Daniel-Blake-has-focused-story-strong-acting
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe