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AE
FOND KISS...
6/10
UK
(UK-Ger-Spn-Ity) 2004 : Ken LOACH : 104 mins
Among the
many admirers of Robert Burns' mournful 1791 love-song 'Ae
Fond Kiss And Then We Sever' down the centuries was Sir Walter Scott,
who reckoned one section - "Had we never lov'd sae kindly / Had we
never lov'd sae blindly / Never met or never parted / We had ne'er been
broken-hearted" - was "worth a thousand romances." This
sixth collaboration between Loach and scriptwriter Paul Laverty - concluding
their unofficial 'Glasgow trilogy' after My Name is Joe and Sweet
Sixteen - borrows Burns' archaic-sounding title and emphasises
in particular his "lov'd sae blindly" line.
Because their
story is a romance that crosses perceived as racial and cultural 'boundaries':
Roisin (Eva Birthistle) is a Northern Irish Catholic teaching at a 'faith-based'
(i.e. Catholic) school; Casim (Atta Yaqub) is the Scots-born son of Punjabi
immigrants. Their relationship faces some daunting obstacles: he's destined
for an arranged wedding, while her private life spells trouble when she
realises her job depends on obtaining a church certificate attesting to
her 'morals.'
Revered as
he is around the world as Britain's enduring cinematic social conscience,
there's never been any doubting the impeccability of Loach's intentions.
This is an intelligent, topical indictment of intolerance, illustrating
the plight of hapless modern individuals trapped by suffocatingly ossified
social constructs. It's material which could easily come across as worthily
earnest, but Loach injects enough grit, passion and energy - there's no
shortage of laughs, and some surprisingly frank love-scenes - to make
the story engaging on a human level, aided by the convincing work of his
two leads.
Laverty's
tendency towards melodramatic excess, while not as distracting as in Sweet
Sixteen, is more of a problem, however, and in Ae Fond Kiss he
stacks the deck a little too firmly against the various forces who are
so keen to see the couple 'sever'. On the technical level, it's naggingly
paradoxical that a film which so relentlessly encourages us to cheer those
who defy expectation and convention should itself adhere so closely to
staid, established movie-making styles. Laverty and Loach could perhaps
have learned a thing or two from their audaciously transgressive heroine
and hero.
3rd September,
2004
(seen 4th June : Vue, Leicester : press show - CinemaDays
event)
by Neil
Young
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