I, Daniel Blake is a gritty drama which lets the viewer experience the frustrations of dealing with the British welfare system. Having had personal experience of the system in the past, the portrayal is very accurate and dealing with it can be a stressful, hair pulling out experience. I did, however, feel that there wasn't a great deal of balance to this film. Some people do take advantage of the system and not every working class person is a salt of the earth, do anything for you type. The ending also grated on me a bit - *****MAJOR SPOILER****** - for me, it would have been better if he had just won his appeal (as happens in the majority of cases) and the speech at the funeral just didn't feel realistic. Sometimes it just felt a bit too contrived, for example the food bank scene. You'd maybe tuck into a bit of fruit or a biscuit, not pour baked beans into your hand. There were other minor niggles like Katie's daughter being a bit posh or Daniel running the mouse up and down the computer screen. We already got that he wasn't internet savvy so making him out to be a complete idiot spoiled otherwise good scenes. I can't help feel that if they hadn't tried to over egg the pudding on a number of occasions, this would have been a much more powerful commentary on the welfare system. To me, it felt like when someone has a really valid point but spoils it by over dramatising. On the plus side, as I said, the actual portrayal of the system was accurate (I also grew to hate that music on the phone) and it was easy to be sympathetic to the character of Daniel. All in all, worth a watch.
Review of I, Daniel Blake
