My Name Is Joe (1999) *** (out of ****)

Directed by Ken Loach

Writen by Paul Laverty

Starring Peter Mullan, David McKay, Anne-Marie Kennedy

"...and I am an alcoholic." British director Ken Loach has made a name for himself for gritty films of social realism, and his latest is noexception. Peter Mullan, who won the Best Actor award at this past year's Cannes Film Festival, indeed gives an award-worthy performance as the Joe of the title, a recovering alcoholic who falls for a nice and stable health care worker named Sarah (Louise Goodall). A romance between such polar opposites has a number of strikes against it as it is, but their relationship is further threatened, in a psychological sense, by demons from Joe's past; and, in a physical sense, by thugs after his ex-junkie friend Liam (David McKay) and his girlfriend Sabine (Anne-Marie Kennedy).

The latter threat takes over the film's final act, which is a wrongheaded turn by Loach and writer Paul Laverty; what had been a thoughtful, complex, yet subtle character study suddenly devolves into violent theatrics more befitting an action picture. Loach and Laverty are apparently at a loss as to how to recover from that misstep, and the film abruptly "stops" rather than "ends." But Loach's keen eye for unpolished reality (down to the gravy-thick Scottish accents; thankfully the film, while in English, is subtitled) and Mullan's passionate, well-modulated turn keeps the film well worth watching. (opens February 5)