Sorry We Missed You: A grim but passionate defence of the delivery driver

If you've cursed out your delivery driver for a package that didn't turn up and was banged up when it did, you're about to have your perspective changed.

Prepare to feel bad about the last time you complained about a delivery driver.

British filmmaker Ken Loach is known for his social realism dramas, gritty and unflinching portraits of the struggles of the working class, and Sorry We Missed You is exactly that.

Except, the main character in the film, Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen), is almost not working class – or at least that’s what he’s been told.

Ricky can’t even enjoy the benefits of a steady job and a social safety net because he’s supposed to be his own boss, the master of his own destiny. That’s right, welcome to the unfeeling gig economy.

Ten years after the GFC hit, Ricky, wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) and their two kids Seb (Rhys Stone) and Liza Jane (Katie Proctor), still haven’t recovered.

The Turners were about to close on their own house and mortgage when Ricky was laid off from his construction job. Since then, Ricky has only managed to procure the odd job here and there while Abbie has run around their northern English city as a home care nurse, working 12 hours days if she’s lucky.

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Sorry We Missed You is Kris Hitchen's first significant role.

When the opportunity arises to join a courier company as a delivery driver, Ricky thinks it’s the best chance his family has to save for that home. But, he’s not an employee, but a franchisee, a contractor.

The warehouse manager may be saying to Ricky, “it’s your choice” but the reality is anything but.

This means he has to stump up the money for his own van and is technically his own boss, but is still choked by the company’s highly restrictive rules. If he’s a minute late with a parcel, he’s in trouble, if he needs to call in sick, he’s fined.

There’s no wiggle room or slack to show anything resembling humanity. Breaking part is never far away.

Everyone in Sorry We Missed You is having a bad time, especially the Turners. Abbie had to sell her car so Ricky can get the money for the van and now must make all her appointments by bus.

She’s a deeply caring woman but can’t spend all the time she wants to with her clients because she too must keep to a strict schedule. Having a surly teenage son and an anxious pre-teen daughter makes things worse as both parents work ridiculous hours to keep them afloat.

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Loach's film has a strong perspective on the gig economy

Loach famously often works with non-actors or newcomers in his films and Honeywood is particularly excellent. She plays Abbie with so much humanity and complexity – it’s remarkable for someone with little experience to be that naturalistic.

Like many of Loach’s films, Sorry We Missed You is stark and spare. He doesn’t rely on visual flourishes, instead putting the onus on the power behind the performances and the story.

Sorry We Missed You isn’t a subtle work – it's more than a bit grim and as much as you beg for some form of catharsis, it will not come.

Loach has a strong point-of-view on what the vice-like grip those in the gig economy are trapped in, a cycle of despair and desperation mixed in with a smidge of false hope.

Loach wants us to see these people, to know they’re there and they’re suffering. That they’re more than a name on a badge or in an app, and to ask ourselves, how did we get here?

Rating: 3.5/5

Sorry We Missed You is in cinemas on Boxing Day

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Originally published as Sorry We Missed You: A grim but passionate defence of the delivery driver