Film review: The Angels' Share

HIGHLAND FLING: The Angels’ Share is a truly funny and charming film.

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THE ANGELS' SHARE (R16) (98 min)
Directed by Ken Loach. Starring Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Gary Maitland.

The angels' share is the lovely poetic name given to that part of a barrel of whisky that evaporates while the whisky is aging. And it makes a fine and appropriate title for this lovely, occasionally poetic new film from Ken Loach.

Loach presents us with a young rogues' gallery of leads. They are a work gang, doing what we would call PD, and all unsuccessful petty criminals. This being Loach, they are also all essentially decent, outrageously witty, and about to get themselves into a filmic scrape which will winningly frame their essential decency, outrageous wit, et cetera.

The sport here is a plan to siphon off a few bottles from a million-pound barrel of booze. The barrel is the last in existence of a near-mythical ''lost scotch'', and even a few bottles of the stuff could set the gang of four up very nicely. Most importantly, they would allow young Robbie (Paul Brannigan) to start a new life with the mother of his newborn son.

It's lovely stuff, this Angels' Share. Like Loach's Looking for Eric before it, this is a truly funny and charming film, with plenty to say, and very likeable way of saying it.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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