This might seem a little weird to you, but this film reminded me of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, but without that story's general mood of good cheer and learning. In this film, which is unrelentingly bleak and nihilistic, Johnny (David Thewlis) is the little prince from asteroid B-612 (actually, Manchester). The film opens with him raping a woman in Manchester, stealing a car, and driving to London to see his ex-girlfriend. The London of the film is dingy, shadowed, and rainy (much like the real thing, from what I hear). Its twisting maze of streets is a reflection of Johnny's mind, the mind of someone who has just stopped trying. In these streets he runs into various despicable and pitiable people. All of the women he meets are despondent creatures who crave his company, even if they know it will only get them mistreated.

As a counterpoint to his philosophical wanderings, the film shows us the exploits of Jeremy (Greg Cruttwell), a ruthless rich guy who resembles Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. He behaves in much the same way as Johnny, but he is beyond caring, while Johnny is tormented by his thoughts and actions. It is not immediately obvious how his parallel storyline will interact with Johnny, and the eventual answer is less than satisfying. Apparently, Mike Leigh needed to show what Johnny was fighting against becoming, and the awkward way in which the two are connected was the only thing he could come up with.

The most interesting scene, and the one that most closely resembles The Little Prince, concerns Johnny's visit with a night watchman at a mysterious company. The man invites him inside and nervously recounts his job: he guards several large, empty rooms, and periodically takes readings from them with a strange device. Instead of being despondent at his lot in life (he guards nothing, and measures it), the man uses his time to think about the future and make plans for his life. This strong example to Johnny, who doesn't work and wanders around trying to make sense of the world, is completely lost on him, as Johnny wanders off and attempts to seduce a woman who lives across the street.

The violence against and seeming degradation of women that is prevalent in the film is disturbing. There is a fine line between representing a social problem and endorsing it, and at times the film seems to endorse. Every woman in the film is seriously physically or emotionally abused, and some of them seem to welcome it, to the point of weeping pitifully when the abuser is absent. None of them take any steps to protect themselves. I am torn as to the meaning. It is possible that Leigh was trying to establish that modern-day England produces people who are so mired in misery that they begin to feel comfortable with it. I am leaning toward this meaning.

The film is, as I said, unremittingly bleak. It has a completely random and nihilistic worldview, "proved" by Johnny's vicious beating at the hands of random street thugs that leads to the depressing conclusion. It is a stark portrait of people who are only going through the motions. At first I respected Johnny because he was rage, raging against the dying of the light. Then I realized that he was using his often incoherent ramblings to distract himself from his real problems, and I only felt sorry for him.