Words By Jack Jones
The Angels’ Share Ken Loach turns in yet another warming comedy, but one not without added bite. After his 2009 comic caper Looking For Eric, Ken Loach is back for more laughs and gaffs with The Angels’ Share. Both Looking For Eric and The Angels’ Share have a similar sentiment of second chances and exhibit a lighter side that Loach isn’t typically known for, particularly when you consider that Route Irish, an intense Iraq-inspired thriller, was made inbetween. Yet, some of Loach’s toughest and most serious films have had moments of great comic panache. Loach’s most iconic film Kes, ostensibly known as an analysis of society and its creaking problems, is a wonderfully funny film. It seems now, later in his career, Loach has flipped the script. Comic value comes first and the social realism is in the background. This is not to say that Loach has gone soft, as The Angels’ Share does have some biting moments, this just a lighter side than we’ve become accustomed to.
When a rough and tumble young offender promises to turn his life around for the sake of his newly born child, he is caught in the violent surroundings of the Glasgow slums. But while on community service, Robbie finds an interest in whisky tasting and comes across a unique way of escaping his dead-end situation; a way out that could also send him back to prison. Robbie’s time with Harry (John Henshaw), the community service supervisor, gives him a purpose and guidance that he has clearly lacked. During the rehabilitation process, Harry takes Robbie and a group of fellow offenders to a whisky distillery. Robbie then shows an ability to taste and smell rare whiskys that leads him and three others to a rather unique way of getting out of the slums. Though the film’s plot jacknifes about between Robbie’s struggle against a rival Glasgow gang who want him dead and the heist of a rare whisky, the sight of this ramshackle group of thiefs in kilts is a sight to behold. If Loach has indeed decided to turn his hand at a more fantastical side of filmmaking, he’s done
“some of the humour is certainly Tuckeresque. Plainly though, there is far less eloquence and Loach certainly finds the voice and dialect of the Glasgow streets.”
so to superb results. Scripted by long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, The Angels’ Share has some wonderfully poetic and similarly crude swearing. There is also something infectiously funny about expansive swearing paired with a Scottish accent. There is an inevitable comparison to be made with the character of Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It and In The Loop, as some of the humour is certainly Tuckeresque. Plainly though, there is far less eloquence and Loach certainly finds the voice and dialect of the Glasgow streets. Loach also continues his work with untrained actors and finds another convincing performer in Paul Brannigan. Bearing a brutal scare on his cheek, Loach uses this as a symbol of how Robbie is seen as a social outcast; unwanted, distrusted, maligned. This general sense of disenfranchised youth is a core theme that underlines all the belly laughs and leaves some food for thought. But Robbie’s circumstance is also a result of some of his own wrongdoings. A tear away before becoming a father, Loach inserts a particularly brutal beating for which
Robbie is responsible and an even more uncomfortable scene when Robbie is forced to meet the victim of his attack. Repentant and remorseful, the mother of his victim assumes Robbie feels nothing and that Robbie is just a thug. Loach obviously sides with the notion of forgiveness and second chances. After all, this is Loach in upbeat form. Far less stark and brutally downbeat than some of Loach’s finest work, The Angels’ Share is a fantasy and melancholic experience. Rather like the anti-heros from heist movies such as The Thomas Crown Affair and The Italian Job, the audience sides with their warmth of character and Robbie certainly has that same quality. Street wise and with a quick mind, you’re not likely to pull a fast one on him. As something of a follow-up to Looking For Eric, if you found something to love there The Angels’ Share is for you.
The Angels’ Share is in cinemas 1 June