A very good movie

Nowadays, I keep watching the movies directed by Ken Loach but even though they are decent, it has been a while since he made something that really impressed me. It’s too bad because, back in the 90’s, I was quite a fan of his work, he directed his best movies and this one was definitely one of my favorites. Indeed, you have his usual sober and realistic directing style, almost documentary-like, with the usual bleak British social background. The big difference with this movie is that the tale was really compelling and I really cared for the characters involved which was unfortunately not really the case concerning Loach’s more recent work. Concerning Robert Carlyle, pretty much like Loach, back in the 90’s, he was probably one of the most compelling actors at work (especially after his breakthrough in ‘Trainspotting’) and it’s too bad he doesn’t do anything really amazing nowadays. In this movie, he was giving his full feature length debut and, right from the start, it was pretty obvious that the guy was the real deal as he gave a really solid performance. To conclude, even though it is nowadays pretty much forgotten, it is actually a really good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10