Quite early on in Sweet Sixteen, Liam (Martin Compston) breaks into a house to steal a stash of drugs which he hopes to sell in order to raise money for a caravan home for himself and his mum. Her boyfriend, and that man's father, is asleep in the house. Liam finds what he is looking for, lifts it...then, just to dot the 'i's and cross the't's, he takes the old man's teeth from out of their glass of water, and makes off with them, too.
It's touches like this which elevate Sweet Sixteen from the grim social comment it might have been into a far more rounded, surprising, and uplifting piece of, well, social comment. Director Ken Loach is, in many ways, on familiar territory here: the depiction of working-class hardship is a milieu running through much of his oeuvre, while the sensitive portrait of a good teenager in trouble harks back to (still) his most famous film, Kes (1969). Yet his latest is anything but old-hat: the obvious title aside, it is hard to envisage a young British director who could have filmed these grim lives with the mix of energy, insight and compassion served up by the sixty-six year-old Loach.
Liam's mum is in prison, due to be released the day before the boy's sixteenth birthday. After yet another beating from her boyfriend, Liam resolves to scrape together enough money to move her out of the house in their home town of Greenock, just outside Glasgow, and into a trailer overlooking the sea. He can make serious money from drugs ... but soon things get pretty serious for him. The first warning sign is when he is robbed by three guys, who beat him up almost as an afterthought. Liam shows his bravery and determination in his refusal to take their pummelling without fighting back, and he and his friend Pinball (William Ruane) eventually reclaim the goods. But Liam's sister (Annmarie Fulton) is getting tired of patching him up, and the local Mr. Big wants Pinball out of the picture.
As Liam, seventeen year-old newcomer Martin Compston is very, very good. A wannabe professional footballer, he received raves at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where Sweet Sixteen was awarded a prize for Paul Laverty's screenplay. Compston has a compelling face, capable of looking tough one minute, sweet the next - the perfect combination for the seesawing influences around him to register. In one scene, he is taken in a van to the back of a pub, given a knife, and told to kill the man who comes out to use the toilet. As he nerves himself to do it, and the target approaches, there are so many conflicting motivations - but after Liam launches himself at the man, only to be dragged off by others, who reveal to him that it was just a 'test' to see if he could be trusted, the boy's relief is mixed with our awareness that sooner or later, he will be called upon to perform such an act for real.
In different hands, this screenplay could have been filmed as a straightforward thriller, but Loach blends the generic elements of betrayals, fights, and even a ride in a stolen car into his pessimistic, but very humanist, sensibility. I'd love to talk about the ending, but really mustn't give it away. Suffice to say that whether or not the final scene is a deliberate homage to another famous film about childhood, our identification is by this point so complete that we want to climb into the movie and try to make all the characters see eye to eye. Loach doesn't provide 'answers', but his clear-sighted conviction in this film is that much of society has stopped bothering even to ask the questions.
Reviewed by Edward Lamberti
Reader comments about Sweet Sixteen
Christina (Email address withheld) writes:
i really thought sweet sixteen was really good. it had a gd story to it and martin compston is stunning, which made sweet sixteen even better.
cant wait until it comes out on dvd so i can go and buy it.
hélène (titilapitchoune@caramail.com) writes:
j'ai trouvé ce film très réaliste et super dur. Les acteurs sont géniau et ont est pris par l'ambiance du film a tel point que l'on est pas près de l'oublier.
sara (sargophersunite@yahoo.co.uk) writes:
i enjoyed the film but i felt it was given too high a age restriction, being because it was a 18,
I actually went to see it because im doiung a project on it in media studies in my school where i have to write about the film throught the point of view of both a tabliod and a broadsheet news paper. However i watched the film and it really touched me and i would definatly recomend it to any one.
charlene (charlene508@msn.com) writes:
i thought it wiz amazing and being fae Glesga i thought alot more of it, if ye've seen the film then you'll understan my writin but if yer no then haha but i hink the film wiz minted and Martin is stunnin i hink ye should get more pics ae him on here man, the only hing i thought wiz wrong wi the film wiz the junkies it shoulda been hash or something they sold no Kit cause thats wit people get killed with in Glasgow n i dont agree wi junkies at aw and there's too many ae them fae here but they should aw get the jail it didnae show ye any dying(sounds terrible) but thats the reality of Kit - ye take it - one day ye die from it it makes me ragin man cause most junkies have got weans anyhow im rabblin noo im sounding like Pinball who is class i hink he's sooo funny man he's a shitbag but lol cya's
Tomer from Israel (tomerto@yahoo.com) writes:
Excellent Film. I love British films exactly because of films like this one.
The only thing I didn't understand is the character Suzanne who does not contribute anything to the story. It would be nice if she had some romance with Liam and/or Pinball, wouldn't it?
karl (karlkg@hotmail.com) writes:
j'ai beaucoup aimé ce film, en effet comme ca deja été dit,il est d'un tres grand realisme, on est plongé dans l'histoire à la difference des super grosse production avec plein de moyens, qui sortent toujours le meme style de film avec les memes acteurs! Martin compston me touche vraiment de part son caractere de battant,son courage et sa bonne volonté pour sortir sa mère de l'enfer,et il est beau gosse! FILM A VOIR
Gemma (Email address withheld) writes:
I went to see the film on opening night and it was absolutely brilliant. Met Martin the following week out in Greenock and was able to tell him in person how great he was in the film. Hope to see him back on the screen soon.
graham (Email address withheld) writes:
i thought sweet sixteen wiz amazin man cos it is in ma hame toon and martin is mentel in it am naw saying its pure reality but its naw far away fea it in penny fern thers junkies but naw in lark feild ats were a stay
Sara Lynch (missfantasia@hotmail.com) writes:
it was one of the best films i'd seen. i thought martin compston played his part deadly.he was rapid.i suppose bein from a part of dublin dat has d same shit goin on,how im 17 and how alike ireland and scotland are makes me relate to it.well i hope the GORGEOUS martin makes more films or if he wants to go and play for celtic thats cool too.Top class flik
Scott P. [P is for Proactive] (Email address withheld) writes:
I felt a little queazy at the first viewing of this film as it started. I have already vowed to watch film's before I pass on opinion. Ken Loach has done an excellent job here, and all of the cast, particularly Martin Compston are convincing, the story, as gritty as it is, never goes low enough for depression to set in and the whole thing has an almost bright feel about it. I feel now that this is an excellent piece of film-making and are [Scottish] film industry has another winner.
Gene Hunt (Email address withheld) writes:
Sweet Sixteen was amazing. I never used to be interested in british films but since starting film studies at college it has widen my film taste. The thing that i loved about ken loaches sweet sixteen was that it made you feel sorry for Townies (Chavs, Neds, scally's etc) I'm from york & even though it is kinda a posh area we do have aload of townies which gets you mad coz they normally try & course trouble & most of them are general low life & thats what i thought when i saw anyone who in the slighest looked or acted like a townie, but since seeing this film i have a different view now, yes you do get the odd wanker who is a townie but maybe it's not always there fault how they turn out? i think this was 1 of the messages that loach was trying to get across, i think he wants us to understand them instead of labeling them. I still don't really like townies but i'm more open minded about them now than what i was before.
× Lauren × (Email address withheld) writes:
Sweet sixteens amazin martin used to go to mah scool n he knos mah bruva n been in mah house n stuff hes pua snd but films was lyk reality hea in greenock i fot it was amazin i hope martin goes far eh boy deserves it n lassies how STUNNIN is he oooft hes gorjus xx
James (Email address withheld) writes:
Thought it was amazin maself! would love to see a follow up bout wat happened next though! pinball quality guy! is there any other films like this or is there gonna be a follow up kind of story it wid jus be as gd! if not better!
Maria (Email address withheld) writes:
Sweet Sixteen made me stayed all glued up to the TV until it ended...with a tear in my eye. Martin Compston played his role exceptionally and his young son Callum was adorable.
This film will always be my number 1 in my list!
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