Main Cast: Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, David McKay, Annemarie Kennedy, David Hayman
Release Year: 1998
Country: UK/DE
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Actor Peter Mullan won the 1998 Cannes Film Festival "Best Actor" award with this film, directed by Ken Loach (Carla's Song, Ladybird, Ladybird). The drama is set in Possilpark, one of Glasgow's poorest neighborhoods, a rough section where half the population is out of work. Unemployed reformed alcoholic Joe Kavanagh (Mullan) does odd jobs and manages a stumbling soccer team. One of the players is Liam (David McKay), in debt to hood McGowan (David Hayman). Liam and junkie Sabine (Annemarie Kennedy) are raising a small son. After Joe meets social worker Sarah (Louise Goodall), he and his pal Shanks show up to help in the wallpapering of Sarah's apartment. This job creates a problem for Joe with the local unemployment office, until Sarah steps in to cover. It's the beginning of a romance, and Joe and Sarah make an effort to help Liam and Sarah when they are threatened by the loan sharks. Mullan commented, "The drug problem in that place is so serious that people are passive. They are corralled in a sort of dog-eat-dog environment where humans meet to laugh and thrive but have no hope of getting out." Scripted by former lawyer Paul Laverty, the film is inspired by the first half of Loach's Carla's Song. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
My Name Is Joe could be considered both a recovering alcoholic story and a social commentary on working-class life in Glasgow, Scotland. It could also be considered an affecting love story in which two people, Joe (Peter Mullen) and Sarah (Goodall), try to form a connection despite their uncertainties. Above all else, however, this film is a character study of a likable but flawed man who faces some very difficult choices. In a remarkable performance that's both dynamic and completely natural, Mullen masterfully conveys the conflicting sides of Joe's personality. He's a caring person and loyal friend who's proud of his commitment to both straightening out his own life and helping his buddies; but he risks getting into deep trouble because he has too little self-control and too many self-serving rationalizations for his impulsive behavior. Unfortunately, Sarah is not as well developed a character as Joe, although Goodall still manages to do a superb job of conveying how she is torn between her attraction to Joe and her wariness about getting into a serious relationship with him. This relationship, like the other elements of the film, seems particularly vivid and real because of Ken Loach's skill at capturing moments from ordinary life, including both the aggravations (e.g., the difficulties of getting prescriptions at a medical clinic) and the humor (e.g., the uniforms of the losing soccer team). This sense of verisimilitude is enhanced by Loach's ability to write dialogue that is both intelligent and believable; it should be noted, however, that the actors recite this dialogue in accents so authentically thick that this English-language movie has been subtitled for the United States. The only major flaw in this otherwise exceptional film is that it relies on somewhat melodramatic plot contrivances near the end; even the melodrama, however, is handled in a thoughtful and compelling manner. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
Fergus Clegg - Art Director, Gillian Berrie - Casting, Steven Mochrie - Casting, Rhona Russell - Costume Designer, David Gilchrist - First Assistant Director, Ken Loach - Director, Jonathan Morris - Editor, Ulrich Felsberg - Executive Producer, George Fenton - Composer (Music Score), Martin Johnson - Production Designer, Barry Ackroyd - Cinematographer, Rebecca O'Brien - Producer, Ray Beckett - Sound/Sound Designer, John Hayward - Sound/Sound Designer, Paul Laverty - Screenwriter
My Name Is Joe is a 1998Scottish film directed by Ken Loach. The film stars Peter Mullan as Joe Kavanagh, an unemployed recovering alcoholic in Glasgow who meets and falls in love with a health visitor. David McKay plays his troubled friend Liam. The film's title is a reference to the ritualized greeting performed in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, as portrayed in the film's opening scene.
The movie was mainly filmed in the actual slums of Glasgow and filling small roles with local residents, many of whom had drug and criminal pasts. The natural Scottish accents of some of the actors are unfamiliar to most American television viewers and as such the film is often shown subtitled.
