The Angels Share
| The Angels' Share | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ken Loach |
| Produced by | Rebecca O'Brien |
| Written by | Paul Laverty |
| Starring |
Paul Brannigan John Henshaw William Ruane Gary Maitland |
| Music by | George Fenton |
| Cinematography | Robbie Ryan |
| Edited by | Jonathan Morris |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Entertainment One |
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Release date
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom France Belgium Italy |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £4,376,696 |
The Angels' Share is a British comedy-drama film directed by Ken Loach, starring Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, and William Ruane. It tells the story of a young Glaswegian 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 distillery, 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.
In the opening scenes, the protagonists are sentenced to hours of community payback. During his first community payback session, Robbie (Paul Brannigan), under the guidance of Harry (John Henshaw), is interrupted and taken to the hospital by Harry as his girlfriend, Leonie (Siobhan Reilly), has gone into labour. At the hospital, Robbie is assaulted by two of his girlfriend's uncles and her dad (Gilbert Martin) 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 (Roderick Cowie), 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.
However, Robbie is still being pursued by his old enemy, Clancy (Scott Kyle). 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.
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