Three very different Scottish films came out this year – Filth, the adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel; Sunshine on Leith, a musical based on the music of the Proclaimers, and The Angel’s Share. It’s reductive to suggest that these were the only Scottish films to come out this year, but these three in particular caught the attention of the public on release because of their differing views of life in Scotland, the highs and lows, the banality and the comedy. If anyone can wrestle comedy from banality it’s Ken Loach, elder statesman of British cinema and probably the most respected man in the UK film industry. He’s a director who has stayed true to his roots in kitchen-sink realism, always relying on the same process to work up movies, using casting and rehearsal to hit upon character ideas and stories with a cast of mostly unknowns.
The Angel’s Share concerns a group of friends who visit a local distillery as a reward for their good behaviour as part of a community payback scheme for offenders. It turns out one of them, Robbie, has a natural talent for identifying different flavours in whisky. Meanwhile, a priceless cask of whisky has recently come up for auction, and a local whisky collector intends on getting one of the group to steal some of the whisky for his own collection, and £200,000. “The angel’s share,” as it were.
Ultimately it’s an effecting story of hope in hopeless circumstances, and trying to turn your life around against the odds. It also uses some of the elements of the heist genre along with some light-hearted comedy to make the themes of the film a little easier to swallow. The three guys in the film might be criminals, but they’re likeable. Had Robbie been offered different opportunities in life, he could have capitalised on his excellent nose. It’s about the untapped talents in all of us, talents that we have no conception of. Maybe you’re an ace submarine navigator, or perhaps you’ve a natural talent for excavating dinosaur bones. You could be capable of the perfect murder, for all you know. There’s only one way to find out. That’s the message of The Angel’s Share, in a way.
