The Angels' Share (2012)

This movie was filmed in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the Scottish Highlands, all places my son and I visited by train about 20 years ago. For me that was a highlight of watching this, to see those places again.I found it on Netflix streaming movies.It is Robbie's story. Having grown up in a rough part of Glasgow he has already in his young age had a series of bad encounters with the law. He is a hot-head too, and when disrespected can easily go off to almost killing the victim. Now he has also gotten his girlfriend Leonie pregnant, much to the dissatisfaction of her dad, who even tries to bribe him with money to leave and never see his daughter again. Robbie doesn't have very good prospects.Robbie's life begins to change when get gets on a work payback group for non capital offenders, basically being a supervised work crew to pay back society for their crimes. The monitor of the group, and the man with the van, gets them interested in Scotch Whiskey, and the title of this movie arises from a distillery tour when the young guide explains that in barrel aging a small percentage of the whiskey is lost forever through evaporation and they call that "the angel's share." (NB - The Jim Beam company calls the whiskey trapped inside the wood at the end of aging, "the devil's share", and even sell a whiskey of that name where they claim to have extracted it from the wood. I have some and it in fact is pretty good.) Anyway it turns out Robbie has a natural nose for discerning different qualities of whiskey, and I naturally thought that would lead him into getting a job with a distillery and be able to leave his former life, and build something better for Leonie and him. But the movie takes a quite different turn. Good movie, I enjoyed it for the characters and the subject, both redemption and imagining being there in the whiskey tastings.SPOILERS: Robbie finds out a very rare, very old whiskey is to be sold at auction, and in fact one bottle ended up going for over One Million pounds. But before the auction Robbie hatched a plan with his friends on the work gang, they visited the distillery, Robbie managed to hide among the casks through the night, his friends were outside with empty one- liter soda bottles, he opened the valuable cask and used long clear tubing to siphon off enough to fill 4 bottles. Then he took ordinary whiskey to back fill so that the 4 liters would not be missed. Even when cops stopped and searched them randomly afterwards, all the cops saw were 4 bottles of what they thought was soda. Robbie learned of a black market buyer and sold a bottle for 200,000 pounds and split it with the other 3, and bargained for a job for himself in the whiskey business. His hapless friends broke two of the bottles in a moment of stupidity, and he gave the 4th to the work supervisor who had introduced him to whiskey. But Robbie, Leonie, and their new baby were off to a new life near Stirling.(NB- About 20 years ago we spent two nights in a hotel in Stirling which I like to describe as "the worst hotel in all of Scotland." It was their last weekend of operation, I suspect it was being demolished afterwards. The only good part was that they let us stay free, that's how close to "camping" it was. But I will always remember that hotel stay.)

Set in contemporary Glasgow, THE ANGELS' SHARE does not shy away from portraying the squalid reality of many young peoples' lives. Robbie (Paul Brannigan) has to complete long hours of community service, together with his friends Rhino (William Ruane), Albert (Gary Maitland) and Mo (Jasmin Riggins), while having to cope with the perpetual threat of attack from long-time adversary Clancy (Scott Kyle). However Robbie's 'minder' Harry (John Henshaw), who supervises him on his community service, introduces Robbie to the intricacies of scotch whisky, and Robbie's life is transformed as a result. In an attempt to improve his life, he becomes involved in an elaborate plot to steal an exceptionally rare brand of Scotch from a Highland distillery. While Paul Laverty's screenplay does not shy away from the seamier sides of Glasgow life, it nonetheless suggests that people can be redeemed, so long as they are provided with moral as well as emotional support. Harry seems an unlikely figure in this respect, but his basic honesty stands out in a film full of shady characters. The four youngsters (Robbie and his friends) are totally convincing in their roles - so much so that we share their pleasure when their scheme eventually succeeds and they can look forward to a better life, however transient that might be.

"The Angels' Share" is the first Scottish film I've seen and it's a good one.The film is adept with its tonal shifts. The transitions between lighthearted to dramatic are skillfully done.Paul Brannigan's acting as the young Robbie is very good and he plays the regretful thug who just needs a second chance exceedingly well. The friendship between Harry and Robbie is tangible, but not over done.Paul Laverty's script is very strong and often hilarious. The cast makes the most of it and the ending of the film is pretty much perfect. The only criticism is the use of an American stereotype towards the end, but it doesn't detract from the rest of the film.Overall, you can't go wrong with this film. You may not love it, but I think few would dislike it.

Ken Loach has a long and prolific history as director of "social realism" dramas that wallow in the depths of British society. So I was taken by surprise when his latest, "The Angels' Share", after an expected, gritty first 30 minutes we spend with Glasgow's finest citizens, develops into a heist comedy and even ends on that feel-good note. Top performances here, especially Paul Brennigan as the violent team leader Robbie, John Henshaw as "Big Harry" who shepherds the delinquents during their community service and gives them their chance, and Siobhan Reilly as Leonie, Robbie's mate and mother of his son, in a small but important role, guiding him into taking responsibility. The story is very fairy-tale like, depending on a lot of lucky coincidences that finally lead Robbie and his three buddies into the Scottish highlands where they manage to pinch four bottles of the most expensive Scotch ever sold - the genius being that nobody will be the wiser about the theft since an uncertain amount of Whisky evaporates over time anyway, the so-called "Angels' Share". Robbie even manages to secure a future for himself, Leonie and his son. So, while this ends on a really sugar-sweet note, there remains a bit of cynic distance - it's a sad world where a promising young man can only escape his pigeonhole in society through a chain of miracles. But that's really a minor gripe. Recommended! btw. I saw this subtitled and was glad about it, the scotch accents are melodic and nice but when tempers rose and the talking got heated I dinnae understand f***.