Ken Loach’s bitter-sweet Scottish comedy is the story of four friends who meet on a Community Payback programme and, after being inspired by a visit to a Whisky distillery, plan an audacious crime to finance a better future. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival

The Angels ‘Share starts off with a bit of exposition via court room scene, introducing us to our main characters as they are sentenced to community service. The scene is laughing out loud funny one moment, soberingly sad the next, which sets up the tonal shifts that occur throughout the movie. It starts off as a working class tragedy-in-the-making, only to take a pleasantly unexpected turn into something altogether breezier, a lightly comic story about whiskey tasting and redemption.

Paul Brannigan makes his screen debut as Robbie, a man waging a seemingly hopeless struggle to escape his past and make a life for himself. His downhill slide begins to level out during a visit to his parole officer’s house and a glass of whiskey, which leads to a newfound interest in tasting, and a bit of mischief in the 3rd act that I won’t spoil here.

The highlight of the film is Charles MacLean, a real life whiskey taster playing himself and essentially just doing his job on camera. It’s a job he’s obviously very good at, because onscreen he has charisma and upper-class eccentricity in spades, and an obvious, infectious passion for whiskey.

The working-class milieu of Glasgow creeps around the edges of the film, including a truly disgusting scene involving Robbie’s alcoholic flat mate, and a volume of profanity that would be bracing if it weren’t so amiable in that Scottish kind of way. The Angels Share circumvents a lot of redemption-story clichés, delivering something that’s grounded in reality but finds room for some well-earned warm fuzzies.

A Big Cheese film fan

Apologies to anyone heading to the Civic Hall this evening expecting to see the highly acclaimed Norwegian film Elling.  Due to a lack of power we have had to cancel tonight’s showing.

After The Help, which was shown on 14 January, The Big Cheese Film Club has found another corker – nominated for an Oscar in 2001, in the Best Foreign film category, this Norwegian film portrays two middle-aged, cognitively challenged men who team up to live as roommates in urban Oslo. Somehow, their odd, symbiotic relationship allows them to cope with the day-to-day challenges of independent living even though their methods might be peculiar; the results are frequently hilarious and sometimes inspirational.

When his mother, who has sheltered him for his entire forty years, dies, Elling, a sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution. He soon meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin in his forties.  The men are released after two years and provided with a state-funded apartment and stipend with the hope they will be able to live on their own. Initially, the simple act of going around the corner for groceries is a challenge. Through a friendship born of desperate dependence, the skittish Elling and the boisterous, would-be lover of women, Kjell Bjarne, discover they can not only survive on the outside, they can thrive. However as their courage grows, the two develop oddball ways to cope with society, striking up the most peculiar friendships in the most unlikely places.

This is definitely one of Norway’s best films and one, of only a few, to be internationally recognized.  The movie is based upon the author, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, who himself suffered from depression and mental illness. Despite this, his books have a deep heartfelt warmth and humour that shines throughout his writings. This film manages to carry his writing over to the screen in a commanding way.
A touching, funny film that will stay with you for as long as memories last.