More than 40 years after giving the world “Kes,” a superb social-realist film with a soul-crushing finale, British director Ken Loach is giving audiences a big taste of happiness.
First, though, Loach sets up his story in a Glasgow, Scotland, that’s a mess of poverty and violence; Loach hasn’t changed that much.
Small-time hood Robbie (Paul Brannigan, an ex-con making a vivid film debut) has a girlfriend and an infant son he’d dearly love to start over with, but he also has a violent past that’s shown in graphic detail.
When Robbie is spared from prison for his latest offense in favor of community service, his supervisor (John Henshaw) decides to take Robbie and some other delinquents on an outing to a whiskey distillery.
The scenes in which Robbie, a Scotsman who’s never had scotch, finds he has a nose and a palate for the stuff, show how the love of art (for that’s how the movie sees scotch) can exist in anyone. Whiskey becomes Robbie’s chance for transformation, as he gathers his motley pals for an unlikely heist.
Somewhere past the halfway mark, all darkness lifts, and the movie settles firmly into comic territory. While a few farcical moments fizzle, it’s mostly charming.
Given that the plot hinges on self-trained Robbie knowing his scotch better than the vulgar capitalists who can afford to buy it, even the funny parts don’t back off the political content one bit. At age 76, Loach also decided to offer his characters, and audience, some hope — at the bottom of a glass.