Ken Loach returns with The Angel’s Share, a modest but thoroughly
enjoyable look at fatherhood and Fresh Starts in the Glaswegian Suburbs. Loach
delivers his usual blend of realism and working class banter but this time with
a road movie and heist story thrown on top.
We meet our four Scots in the
Glasgow courthouse, each being tried for their various crimes. Mo, Albert and
Rhino each receive community service stints for their misdemeanours and are
sent on their way before main antagonist Robby takes the stand. Fighting a
conviction of GBH he narrowly dodges prison thanks largely to the testimony of
his heavily pregnant partner Lionee. Soon after the trial comes the arrival
of baby boy Luke and a newfound sense of responsibility for Robby. Looking to
build a better life for himself Robby goes under the wing of community service
instructor and super-gent Harry (a reliably
endearing John Henshaw). It proves difficult for Robby as skeletons from his
old life lurk around every corner and threaten to destroy the family life he is
trying to build. Harry introduces Robby to his passion for Whiskey tasting and here
Robby finds, to his surprise, a hidden talent. When word arrives that a very rare
barrel is about to be auctioned off, Robby sees his chance for salvation and
hatches a plan to swipe the goods.
The film plays well on a number
of fronts; the father-son relationship is explored wonderfully both through the
friendship of Harry and Robby and the tender scenes of Robby with baby Luke. After
a similar but smaller part in Loach’s Looking
For Eric in 2009, John Henshaw is given a more central roll here and does an
excellent job with it. He gives Harry a very believable sense of decency in his
manner with the recently convicted foursome and the lovably earnest way he goes
about his favourite past-time. But his relationship with Robby is where the
film shines. With his kids having left home and probably seeing some of himself
in Robby the pair begin a charming friendship. Alongside Henshaw, Paul
Brannigan gives a terrific performance as a tough young man trying to leave
his past behind him as he steps wide-eyed into fatherhood.
Shot on location in Glasgow and
with a relatively amateur Glaswegian cast, Loach makes no effort to simplify
the language with the city’s notoriously strong local dialect coming thick and fast. This will
prove difficult even for those with the Queen’s language as their mother tongue.
When the film premiered at Cannes the international audience were provided with
English subtitles until about the halfway point when a final line appeared
which read you’re on your own from here…
Loach clearly seeing it as part of the fun and quite right he should. The
laughs come easily throughout, particularly with the good old fish-out-of-water
humour of the gang’s class trips to the distillery and later on to the wine
tasting in Edinburgh.
With The Angel’s Share Loach delivers another good humoured slice of
working class life but the film can
in no way be compared to his better work. Since the release of Looking for Eric in 2009 there’s been a
feeling that the director has been sort of stuck in neutral and despite this being a
more than decent effort, the film does little to change that view. It was 2006 when
Loach picked up the Palme Dor for The
Wind That Shakes the Barley- an unrelenting and beautifully tragic take on
the early days of the Irish civil war- and there’s almost a sense of that great
film still looming over him. In that masterwork he was fearless in showing the
true nature of the British army’s horrific Black
and Tans and while I doubt very much that the great man has lost his
appetite to provoke I do wonder when his next great work will arrive. This
critic knows he has another one left in him and will be patiently waiting till
that day comes.
