''The Angels' Share'' is a 2012
comedy-drama
Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...
film directed by
Ken Loach
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...
and starring
Paul Brannigan,
John Henshaw, and
William Ruane. Set in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, it tells the story of a young father who narrowly avoids a prison sentence. He is determined to turn over a new leaf and when he and his friends from the same community payback group visit a
whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...
distillery
Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...
, a route to a new life becomes apparent.
The title is from "
the angels' share", a term for the portion (share) of a whisky's volume that is lost to evaporation during aging in oak barrels.
Plot
In the opening scenes, the protagonists are sentenced to hours of
community payback. During his first community payback session, Robbie, under the guidance of Harry, is interrupted and taken to the hospital by Harry as his girlfriend, Leonie, has gone into labour. At the hospital, Robbie is assaulted by two of his girlfriend's uncles and her dad before he can see her. Harry takes Robbie back to his house to clean him up, at which point Leonie calls to announce Robbie's son, Luke, has been born. Harry insists that he and Robbie celebrate, and brings out a vintage whisky. With Leonie's encouragement, Robbie agrees to meet with a victim of his former violent crimes, Anthony, who recollects the attack in front of both his family and Leonie. Afterwards, Leonie makes clear that she does not want her son to grow up around violence and long-term feuds.
Harry takes the group to a distillery as a reward for their good behaviour, where they learn what "
the angels' share" is. Afterwards, the tour guide gives them each a dram of whisky and asks them to smell it, and Robbie is complimented on his ability to identify flavours.
Mo steals several
miniatures from the
gift shop.
Robbie, Mo, Rhino and Albert get together later for their own
whisky tasting with the stolen miniatures.
However, Robbie is still being pursued by his old enemy, Clancy. He is about to undergo a beating by Clancy and his followers when he is unexpectedly rescued by Leonie's father. Robbie pleads to be given one last chance but the older man tells him that it's too late, and even if he wanted to change, he cannot escape the feuds and violence of the world he grew up in. Leonie's father tells him that the only way for him to escape the cycle is to leave Glasgow altogether and go to London, but without Leonie. He offers Robbie £5,000 to sweeten the deal and leaves Robbie to think it over.
At the next community service session, Harry asks Robbie if he'd like to come to a whisky tasting in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
.
Mo overhears and invites herself, Albert and Rhino.
Reluctantly, Harry agrees to take all four of them to Edinburgh, where they learn about a cask of priceless whisky, the
Malt Mill, set to go on auction soon, and Robbie is passed a
business card
Business cards are card stock, cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, types of co ...
by a whisky collector, Thaddeus.
After they leave, Mo reveals she spotted and stole documents detailing the warehouse in which the "Malt Mill" is kept but Robbie tells her that he is not interested in crime and is determined to stay straight for the sake of Leonie and Luke.
Robbie and Leonie view a flat which they could rent for six months while the owner is away. Robbie seems touched but it is then revealed they have been followed by one of Clancy's men and Clancy will know where they are going to live. Robbie, realising that he can't continue living under threat of assault on himself and his family, begins planning to steal the Malt Mill with his community service partners. They secure an invitation to the tasting and auction, during which Robbie slopes off to the warehouse to siphon some of the whisky into empty
Irn-Bru bottles, before he is interrupted by Thaddeus and Angus Dobie. Robbie covertly witnesses Thaddeus attempting to bribe Dobie into selling him some of the whisky before the cask goes on auction but he refuses and the two leave, after which Robbie then tops up the cask with cheaper whisky from an adjacent cask. At the auction, the group see Thaddeus outbid by an American, who tastes the cask, and is apparently happy with the slightly diluted blend.
Afterwards, Robbie approaches Thaddeus and negotiates a sale of three bottles for £200,000, and "a real job". They plan to make the exchange in Glasgow, and so begin the trek home, but inadvertently break two of their four bottles during an encounter with the police. Robbie is furious, but goes ahead with meeting Thaddeus, and negotiates a sale for £100,000 and a permanent job far away from Glasgow. Afterwards, Robbie reveals to his friends that he didn't sell two bottles, but one. The scene cuts to show Harry coming home to find a bottle of Irn Bru sitting on his kitchen table next to an open window, with a note thanking him for giving him a chance, and not giving up on him and presenting his "angels' share", next to a newspaper piece showing a photo of the community payback group next to the cask. He smells the bottle and rejoices gleefully at the Malt Mill inside.
In the final scene, Robbie and Leonie leave for
Stirling
Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
in an immaculate old
Volkswagen Type 2
The Volkswagen Transporter, initially the Type 2, is a range of light commercial vehicles, built as vans, pickups, and cab-and-chassis variants, introduced in 1950 by the German automotive industry, automaker Volkswagen as their second mass ...
, having made temporary goodbyes to the rest of the group. After they leave, the rest of the group resolve to go get wasted. The film ends with
The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers are a Scottish Rock music, rock duo formed in 1983 by twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid (born 5 March 1962). They came to attention with their 1987 single "Letter from America (song), Letter from America", which reached No. 3 ...
' "
500 Miles
"500 Miles" (also known as "500 Miles Away from Home" or "Railroaders' Lament") is a song made popular in the United States and Europe during the 1960s folk revival. The simple repetitive lyrics offer a lament by a traveler who is far from hom ...
" playing.
Cast
Production
The film was produced by Sixteen Films, Why Not Productions and
Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...
. It was backed financially by the
BFI, Les Films du Fleuve, Urania and
France 2 Cinéma
France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...
.
Filming in Glasgow and Edinburgh started 25 April 2011.
Release
The film competed for the
Palme d'Or
The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...
at the
2012 Cannes Film Festival
The 65th Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti was the president of the jury for the main competition. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Austrian filmma ...
,
and Loach won the
Jury Prize.
It is Loach's 11th film in 31 years to compete at the French festival.
Entertainment One
Lionsgate Canada is a Canadian entertainment company and a subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios. Based in Toronto, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series.
The company began on June 1, 1973 ...
acquired the distribution rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland, where the film went on general release on 1 June.
Critical reception
''The Angels' Share'' was met with critical acclaim. Film review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on a sample of 101 reviews, with a rating average of 7.1 out of 10. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film received a score of 66 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film was nominated for the
Magritte Award for Best Foreign Film in Coproduction
The Magritte Award for Best Foreign Film in Coproduction (French language, French: Magritte du meilleur film étranger en coproduction) is an award presented annually by the Académie André Delvaux. It is one of the Magritte Awards, which were e ...
and at the
2012 Cannes Film Festival
The 65th Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti was the president of the jury for the main competition. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Austrian filmma ...
won the Jury Prize (the third-most prestigious prize at the film festival).
Home media
Entertainment One released ''The Angels' Share'' on
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
and DVD on 24 September 2012, in the United Kingdom.
See also
*
Cinema of Scotland
The film and cinema industry in Scotland is largely supported by Creative Scotland, Screen Scotland, the Non-departmental public body, executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which provides financial support, direction ...
*
Cinema of France
The cinema of France comprises the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe, with prima ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angels Share, The
2012 films
2012 in Scotland
2012 comedy-drama films
Belgian comedy-drama films
British comedy-drama films
2010s English-language films
English-language Belgian films
English-language French films
English-language Italian films
Films scored by George Fenton
Films about alcoholic drinks
Films directed by Ken Loach
Films set in Edinburgh
Films set in Glasgow
Films shot in Argyll and Bute
Films shot in Edinburgh
Films shot in Glasgow
Films shot in Highland (council area)
French comedy-drama films
British heist films
Italian comedy-drama films
Scots-language films
Scottish comedy-drama films
2010s British films
2010s French films
English-language comedy-drama films
2010s Belgian films
Cannes Jury Prize winners
Films with screenplays by Paul Laverty