Review #1,168: 'I, Daniel Blake' (2016)

Anyone who may be under the impression that Britain's great social realist Ken Loach has lost the sense of social injustice that has defined his magnificent track record since his milestone BBC television play Cathy Come Home (1966), may be rest assured that there is a still plenty of fire in the prolific English director's belly. In what feels like an angry reaction to the Tories' austerity measures and the tabloid cries of 'Benefits Britain', I, Daniel Blake feels like a war cry to unite the skilled, working-class grafters who continue to be chewed up by a bureaucratic system that is leaving the elderly and those truly in need behind, forcing them to demean themselves for the assistance and care they truly deserve.

In Newcastle, Daniel Blake (played by stand-up comedian Dave Johns) is informed by his GP that he has a heart condition that will keep him out of work for the foreseeable future. Apprehensively, but on his doctor's recommendation, he heads to the Job Centre to sign on. He is eager to get back to work, but is confident that a lifetime of hard manual labour and steady work has surely earned him the right to seek aid in his time of need. He is denied employment and support benefits, despite his GP's note, and is systematically passed from one department to another, each of which require him to fill in a form online (he's so clueless with computers that he runs the mouse up the side of the monitor at one point) and provide evidence that he is actively seeking employment, despite his inability to work. So begins a ludicrous, Kafka-esque battle against a system seemingly eager to make the process as difficult as possible.

It's an incredibly depressing subject matter, and a topic which tends to lead to extreme reactions, depending on who you speak to and whose opinion they've recently read and decided they agree with. Yet this is certainly not a depressing film, it's actually incredibly funny. There's a real warmth to the script by Paul Laverty, and a real tenderness to the relationship between Daniel and single mother Katie (Hayley Squires); a Londoner who has been moved up North to the next available residence, itself a damning indictment of the soaring house prices in the capital and the government's eagerness to upscale 'urban' neighbourhoods. Struggling to find a job and faced with the same bureaucratic barriers as Daniel, she starves herself so her children can eat hot food, and is caught shoplifting. Perhaps you've shaken your head at the single mother on the bus struggling to control her screaming children, but Loach shows us what life might really be like for those truly in need.

In a truly Loachian touch, there's also much joy to be had in the company of working class. Daniel forms a friendship with his young neighbour China (Kema Sikazwe), a cheeky chap who is selling authentic trainers at a cut-price by shrewdly importing them directly from the warehouse (the scene in which Daniel meets his Chinese contact via Skype is one of the film's most hilarious moments). Despite the serious subject matter and occasional heart-breaking moment, there's a weird sense of optimism to the film's sense of injustice. Like a rallying cry to anyone left behind by the system, a triumphant and incredibly satisfying scene of defiance, from which the film gets its title, occurs towards the end of the film. As one would expect, Loach downplays it, ensuring that his message is properly received with a sobering climax. There's talk of Ken Loach going into retirement, and if this proves to be his final film, he's gone out with a bang, delivering from one of the finest movies of his career.


Directed by: Ken Loach
Starring: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Sharon Percy, Kema Sikazwe
Country: UK/France/Belgium

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie