'The Angels' Share' is an odd mix of frivolous and socially conscious
The British director Ken Loach has usually gone in for kitchen-sink realism of the bleakest sort, but he does occasionally come up for air and make comedies. Of course, a Loach comedy isn鈥檛 the same thing as a Judd Apatow comedy. Beneath even the most frivolous of his escapades beats the heart of a thoroughgoing socialist scourge.
鈥淭he Angels鈥� Share,鈥� about a group of Glasgow toughs who attempt to pull off a robbery of high-end whiskey in the Highlands, is alternately delightful and bewildering. The bewilderment exists because Loach can鈥檛 quite let go of his political scruples. There are sequences in this movie that are as hard-edged as anything he鈥檚 ever done and others that are not far removed from something like 鈥淏illy Elliott.鈥� He wants to make a crowd-pleaser but doesn鈥檛 quite have the knack for it. He鈥檚 too socially conscious for that.
With his longtime collaborator, Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, Loach tries to give realism a bit of a bounce here. The narrative continually swerves from the gritty to the fanciful. The filmmakers don鈥檛 go in for a lot of touristy Scottish Highland stuff, but when they choose to draw on such material, it鈥檚 always in a lightly satirical vein.
Those toughs, for example, decide to wear kilts in order to credibly impersonate the alleged 鈥淐arntyne Malt Whisky Club.鈥� By the time this happens, they have already been thoroughly domesticated in our eyes. When the film begins, Robbie (first-time actor Paul Brannigan, with a rough background similar to his character鈥檚) has been assigned to community service after a violent episode, narrowly avoiding a jail sentence because the judge believes he can become a better man. Soon Robbie鈥檚 partner Leonie (Siobhan Reilly) has a baby boy, and, cradling the child, Robbie whispers to him that he will never hurt another person again. This is especially telling because there is a scene in 鈥淭he Angels鈥� Share鈥� in which Robbie is made to meet the family of a boy he battered. It鈥檚 difficult to listen to what happened, with garish flashbacks inserted, and entirely warm to Robbie afterward.
The other miscreants assigned to community service are a bumptious lot (another sign that Loach is in a mellow mood). Dweeby Albert (Gary Maitland), jokester Rhino (William Ruane), and klepto Mo (Jasmin Riggins) all fall in line with Robbie鈥檚 whiskey-heist scheme, hatched when the group鈥檚 kindly counselor, Harry (John Henshaw), takes them on a guided tour of a local distillery. Harry takes a particular interest in Robbie because he sees what an outcast Leonie鈥檚 family 鈥� society itself, in Loach鈥檚 view 鈥� has made of him. Harry is the film鈥檚 finest creation, a man who possesses the most refined instincts for gauging the good in people, especially misfits. He鈥檚 like a guardian angel but, thanks to Henshaw鈥檚 warm performance, he comes across as entirely credible.
How does Loach turn this rather mild material into a social tract? Robbie, it turns out, has an amazing nose for whiskey. He can decode the various blends with just a whiff. So we are led to believe that the proletariat is innately every bit as refined as the ruling class. And because Robbie is ripping off people who are idiotic enough to spend a million pounds for a bottle of very rare whiskey, he鈥檚 something of a Robin Hood, too. Only the spoils mostly go into the pockets of the thieves. The title of 鈥淭he Angels鈥� Share鈥� refers to the 2 percent of whiskey that vaporizes annually as it matures. The film itself vaporizes before your eyes, but it鈥檚 likable. Given its unstable mishmash of thuggery and whimsy, that鈥檚 something of an achievement. Grade: B-
