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" Who knew whisky was the answer to all life&amp;#039;s troubles? Walk into any bar and there&amp;#039;ll be a hardened alcoholic keen to prove the theory. But in the case of Ken Loach&amp;#039;s latest mellow comedy drama, it&amp;#039;s the monetary value of a rare blend that promises to turn a young thug&amp;#039;s life around. It&amp;#039;s less whimsical than Looking for Eric, with Scottish newcomer Paul Brannigan bringing a rough edge to the part of Robbie, a ne&amp;#039;er-do-well from a Glasgow council estate. His girlfriend gives birth to his first child just as he&amp;#039;s brought to court on a charge of GBH. Of course, one look into his baby&amp;#039;s eyes is enough to alter his course, though not in the way the judge might have hoped for. Robbie performs community service under the supervision of an uncle-like John Henshaw with fellow rag-tags Rhino (William Ruane), dopey Albert (Gary Maitland) and punky chick Mo (Jasmin Riggins). It&amp;#039;s on an away-day tasting whisky where Robbie discovers that he has a discriminating palette. This could be a bright new beginning, but instead he reverts to criminal type.  After a leisurely build-up, Loach sets the scene for a daring heist at a rural distillery where a bottle of the finest represents the annual GDP of a small African country. Robbie plans to liberate a bottle or two and the implication is that it doesn&amp;#039;t really matter because thousands of pounds worth of the stuff naturally evaporates into the atmosphere every day - namely, &amp;#039;The Angel&amp;#039;s Share&amp;#039;. The gang executes the job with endearing amateurism and a cheeky glint in the eye, but this is still a Ken Loach film and there is a socioeconomic point to be made about the fair distribution of wealth. Still, whatever that point is, it seems to have gotten lost in the alcoholic fug. You can&amp;#039;t help rooting for Robbie, but it&amp;#039;s not because Brannigan is spilling over with charisma. He&amp;#039;s an inexperienced actor (one of Loach&amp;#039;s finds) who delivers a straightforward performance. You only feel for him because he&amp;#039;s downtrodden and that&amp;#039;s patronising enough, but then Loach appears to celebrate his criminality, because it&amp;#039;s only the wealthy who are left short-changed. If this were a genre movie, it wouldn&amp;#039;t matter, but Loach asks us to look more deeply at what motivates Robbie then proceeds to undermine our faith in him. A powerful scene where he is forced to confront the victim of his crime creates a need for redemption that goes unfulfilled. To his credit, Loach doesn&amp;#039;t shy away from the violence, but it creates greater imbalance later on when he tries to paint Robbie as a loveable rogue. Of course the heist doesn&amp;#039;t all go Robbie&amp;#039;s way, with unexpected thrills and, yes, spills to deal with. Still, the caper is a bit too jolly. Like a fine malt, it goes down easy but soon after, that warm rush is replaced by pangs of regret.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/cannes-film-festival/review/a383743/the-angels-share-review-ken-loach-directs-whisky-soaked-comedy/>