Now, that I can count the number of Loach films I saw with more than one hand's fingers, I'm put into that position where I appreciate both his constancy in tone and style and his capability to surprise his viewers. "My Name is Joe" did satisfy me on that level.
This another exploration of the working class, the non-working part of it for that matter, through one of these characters that are impossible to forget and even more to dislike. As proud Scottish and not-too proud former alcoholic, Joe Kavanagh is a man who cuts immediately straight to your heart. The film opens with a long monologue where he explains that he was in denial in the first AA meeting but not the second... five years later. The epiphany came with the kind of incident that would be deemed today as simply unforgivable.
Now, why does Loach start with that?
Because, once again, this is his style. Even from his groundbreaking "Cathy Come Home", Loach knows that no one's better than the main protagonist to talk about himself, for even the words that shouldn't be taken at face value would say something about eventual insecurities or weaknesses. But Joe doesn't sugarcoat anything, he says what he was and states in front of an assembly of other AA that it's been 10 months without drinking and that the road is still long. There's a lot of smoking in that room and I'm not sure it's coincidental, sometimes the best way to abandon an addiction is to stick to a "lesser" one. Anyway, the point is made: Joe, wonderfully played by Mullan, strikes as an honest man who speaks the truth in such an open-hearted way that we know he might not have been perfect but that he's trying hard to reconquer his self-pride makes him decent... and good enough.
The rest of the film proves our instinct right, he manages a little local team who, among its players, counts a long-suffering diminutive guy named Liam (David Mackie). He's a former junky with the kind of debt whose options would either destroy you on the longer or shorter term. Joe doesn't know how serious Liam's troubles are but when he sees him getting regularly beaten by some hooligans, he doesn't interfere, he knows he wants to stay clean from that world he knows too much, the least he can do is give advice. Meanwhile, he meets Sarah Downie, a doctor and social worker, played by Louise Goddal. In her own way, she's the female equivalent of Joe, minus the past (and even that is left uncertain), she cares about people among which Liam's wife Sabine (Anne-Marie Kennedy) and her son. Little does she know how disastrous is Sabine's situation too.
Maybe it's too early to mention Liam and Sabine because the whole first act could belong to a romantic comedy, not the genre that made Loach' legacy, but this is truly how it works. From the first encounters and exchanges of quips to the little help offered by Joe and his friend Shanks (Gary Lewis) to paint and wallpaper her house and that incident with the welfare agent that took photographs of him providing the film's signature moment with Joe carrying the painting bucket. Loach cleverly toys with our expectations and the credit goes to Paul Laverty's screenplay, when Joe and Sarah share a pizza for dinner, Joe says he doesn't drink, the warmth is lost and so he leaves. When she pays him, it's a remuneration but when she sends a letter to the welfare agency saying that she didn't, that's the act of a friend. This prompts Joe to invite her for a bowling game, later he reveals the reason why he stopped drinking, the night after they kiss and become lovers.
The point is made: the whole relationship between Joe and Sarah is based on honesty. And the trick is that they care for people who can't get away with honesty. Sarah would but Joe...
Why did I mention Liam and Sabine then? Simply because the romance between Joe and Sarah don't follow the usual formula. Generally, there's an incident within the couple that undermines their relationship, but it comes from one of them. In this film - and that's the film's surprise- the troubles are already set-up when Joe and Sarah fall in love. It's a Damocles sword that falls upon Joe who can't make a choice between Sarah and Liam because this is a life-and-death situation. It's interesting because Joe's actually a passive character, even when he chooses to pay Liam's debt by working for McGowan (David Hayman) it's not even a choice. You know the word for a character who's only got bad options.
And Joe is even more tragic because he's such a nice and lovable lad, full of charm and humor, with the kind of charisma that could elevate his status and Sarah can see it. His misfortune is inherited from a past that's not even his own. And as the narrative progresses and we can predict some developments here and there, fights or eventual reconciliations, maybe a relapse in drinking, Loach makes things escalate to a climax where I was incapable to figure out what would happen. And that doesn't happen in every movie. This is a film that escapes cinematic narrative conventions and even the resolution of the climax (for there's always one, happy or tragic) is both surprising and not, and even more powerful because it makes sense within the framework of that harrowing journey of people trying to escape from a past that runs a little faster.
This is why "My Name is Joe" is such a powerful Loach experience and Mullan's acting is the salt that gives its full flavor, a performance that the Oscars overlook so many times but at least the Cannes Festival proved to have a better judgment.
This another exploration of the working class, the non-working part of it for that matter, through one of these characters that are impossible to forget and even more to dislike. As proud Scottish and not-too proud former alcoholic, Joe Kavanagh is a man who cuts immediately straight to your heart. The film opens with a long monologue where he explains that he was in denial in the first AA meeting but not the second... five years later. The epiphany came with the kind of incident that would be deemed today as simply unforgivable.
Now, why does Loach start with that?
Because, once again, this is his style. Even from his groundbreaking "Cathy Come Home", Loach knows that no one's better than the main protagonist to talk about himself, for even the words that shouldn't be taken at face value would say something about eventual insecurities or weaknesses. But Joe doesn't sugarcoat anything, he says what he was and states in front of an assembly of other AA that it's been 10 months without drinking and that the road is still long. There's a lot of smoking in that room and I'm not sure it's coincidental, sometimes the best way to abandon an addiction is to stick to a "lesser" one. Anyway, the point is made: Joe, wonderfully played by Mullan, strikes as an honest man who speaks the truth in such an open-hearted way that we know he might not have been perfect but that he's trying hard to reconquer his self-pride makes him decent... and good enough.
The rest of the film proves our instinct right, he manages a little local team who, among its players, counts a long-suffering diminutive guy named Liam (David Mackie). He's a former junky with the kind of debt whose options would either destroy you on the longer or shorter term. Joe doesn't know how serious Liam's troubles are but when he sees him getting regularly beaten by some hooligans, he doesn't interfere, he knows he wants to stay clean from that world he knows too much, the least he can do is give advice. Meanwhile, he meets Sarah Downie, a doctor and social worker, played by Louise Goddal. In her own way, she's the female equivalent of Joe, minus the past (and even that is left uncertain), she cares about people among which Liam's wife Sabine (Anne-Marie Kennedy) and her son. Little does she know how disastrous is Sabine's situation too.
Maybe it's too early to mention Liam and Sabine because the whole first act could belong to a romantic comedy, not the genre that made Loach' legacy, but this is truly how it works. From the first encounters and exchanges of quips to the little help offered by Joe and his friend Shanks (Gary Lewis) to paint and wallpaper her house and that incident with the welfare agent that took photographs of him providing the film's signature moment with Joe carrying the painting bucket. Loach cleverly toys with our expectations and the credit goes to Paul Laverty's screenplay, when Joe and Sarah share a pizza for dinner, Joe says he doesn't drink, the warmth is lost and so he leaves. When she pays him, it's a remuneration but when she sends a letter to the welfare agency saying that she didn't, that's the act of a friend. This prompts Joe to invite her for a bowling game, later he reveals the reason why he stopped drinking, the night after they kiss and become lovers.
The point is made: the whole relationship between Joe and Sarah is based on honesty. And the trick is that they care for people who can't get away with honesty. Sarah would but Joe...
Why did I mention Liam and Sabine then? Simply because the romance between Joe and Sarah don't follow the usual formula. Generally, there's an incident within the couple that undermines their relationship, but it comes from one of them. In this film - and that's the film's surprise- the troubles are already set-up when Joe and Sarah fall in love. It's a Damocles sword that falls upon Joe who can't make a choice between Sarah and Liam because this is a life-and-death situation. It's interesting because Joe's actually a passive character, even when he chooses to pay Liam's debt by working for McGowan (David Hayman) it's not even a choice. You know the word for a character who's only got bad options.
And Joe is even more tragic because he's such a nice and lovable lad, full of charm and humor, with the kind of charisma that could elevate his status and Sarah can see it. His misfortune is inherited from a past that's not even his own. And as the narrative progresses and we can predict some developments here and there, fights or eventual reconciliations, maybe a relapse in drinking, Loach makes things escalate to a climax where I was incapable to figure out what would happen. And that doesn't happen in every movie. This is a film that escapes cinematic narrative conventions and even the resolution of the climax (for there's always one, happy or tragic) is both surprising and not, and even more powerful because it makes sense within the framework of that harrowing journey of people trying to escape from a past that runs a little faster.
This is why "My Name is Joe" is such a powerful Loach experience and Mullan's acting is the salt that gives its full flavor, a performance that the Oscars overlook so many times but at least the Cannes Festival proved to have a better judgment.