NZIFF 2012 Review: ‘The Angels’ Share’

Ken Loach is best known for his gritty, socio-realist stories of the British working class. While this film doesn’t shy away from the grim realities faced by ex-cons in Glasgow, it has far more laugh out loud humour than you’d expect from a Ken Loach film.

Robbie is a young thug who has been sentenced to community service after yet another assault charge for fighting with a rival and his family. He’s desperate to change. His young girlfriend is pregnant and Robbie wants to be a good father. When Harry, the work-gang’s foreman, takes the team on a field trip to a distillery, Robbie’s curiosity is piqued, especially by the ‘Angel’s Share’ – the name given to the whiskey lost to evaporation during the distilling process.

As he learns more about whiskey, and drags his new friends from community service along to his tastings, he realises some whiskies are worth more than others.  When he discovers an extremely rare cask is up for auction in the Scottish Highlands, he figures out that just a few bottles would be enough to set he and his friends up for life.

And from here the film rollicks along until its hilarious and satisfyingly touching conclusion.

The largely unknown actors are universally good, while occasionally their thick brogues are difficult to understand.  The only character who seemed out of place was Robbie’s girlfriend, whose father is a nightclub–owning gangster. That she could be so sweet and pure with a father like that seems unlikely to say the least.

The first and second halves of the film are very different in tone, but somehow the transition between bleak social commentary and Ealing comedy-like farce is smooth enough not to clash.

Funny, sweet and enormously satisfying, this film will definitely have you leaving the theatre with a smile on your face.

8.5/10