Career Girls (1997)--4/5

In college, Annie (Lynda Steadman) nervously stared at the ground, her overgrown bangs covering half of her dermatitis-afflicted skin. She wouldn't always be like this. We know because she comes back to London six years later to visit her old roommate, Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge). Hannah was no less insecure, channeling her problems into a quick temper, never saying exactly what she meant. About half of "Career Girls" is scattered with long-form flashbacks, with Annie and Hannah as best--sometimes only--friends in college. In the present, they reconnect just as strongly, as if no time has passed.

Steadman and Cartlidge perform impressive feats of acting. In each case, they have to show monumental change. Unlike most movies that show people at different ages, they're not mimicking their younger selves. Enough does bleed through--a nervous habit or a way of talking, for example--to connect young and old.

The title "Career Girls" makes the film sound like a sexy farce or a sequel to "Working Girl." It's a title that Annie and Hannah would mock, equally in college and in the present. They have grown up, have gotten jobs. But the jobs are a small piece of the whole. Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky) is more concerned with creating people that live and breath in his cinematic world. He shares just an hour and a half of time with Annie and Hannah. "Career Girls" ends just as you realize you could watch it for days.