MOVIE REVIEW

British director Ken Loach straddles the issue of embracing freedom while rigid doctrines smother it.

By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer

For 40 years, Britain's Ken Loach has explored the lives of ordinary people, most often working class and some living on the margins. Inevitably, their stories reveal the society, its culture and its institutions, in which they live and often struggle.

With Loach, it's the people who come first, and social consciousness never lapses into preachiness. In collaboration with the gifted writer Paul Laverty on this film, Loach is especially skilled at restraining his own anger at injustice and ignorance, relying on the power of presenting life as he finds it. All of Loach's formidable strengths, which include a sense of humor, come together in the wrenching "A Fond Kiss," which is the third in his Glasgow trilogy that began with "My Name Is Joe" (1998), about a recovering alcoholic rebuilding his life, and the ironically titled "Sweet Sixteen" (2002), in which poor youths see no alternatives to crime.

ADVERTISEMENT

Casim Khan (Atta Yaqub) is a young son of Pakistani immigrants who have worked hard, achieved security and stayed strictly within their own community. As the film opens, the Khan family life, presided over by the patriarchal Tariq (Ahmad Riaz), a successful grocer, is deceptively serene. The demure elder Khan daughter, Rukhsana (Ghizala Avan), is about to have a marriage arranged for her; in little more than two months Casim is to be married to a cousin arriving from Pakistan; and younger daughter Tahara (Shabana Bakhsh) has a lively, assertive spirit and excels in high school. Then Casim meets Roisin (Eva Birthistle), a beautiful blond pianist, and their mutual attraction is instant and overwhelming — and then Tahara announces that she does not want to become a doctor as her father intended but has won a prestigious scholarship in journalism to the University of Edinburgh. A cataclysm is underway.

The most telling remark in a film full of them is Tahara's question to her father: Why bother coming to the West if he didn't want more opportunities for his children? Tariq doesn't reply, but his answer is obvious. He does want a better life for his children, but he and his wife, Sadia (Shamshad Akhtar), have unquestioningly assumed their children will want to live their lives according to strict Muslim traditions. Casim and Roisin's headlong plunge into passionate romance of course throws him into profound conflict because he loves and respects his parents. At the same time, Roisin, a lapsed Catholic long separated from her husband, comes upon a brutal and unexpected stumbling block when she presents a certificate of approval to her parish priest for his signature, which is necessary to confirm her new teaching position at a Catholic school — never mind that it is supported by public funds.

"A Fond Kiss" couldn't be more timely in its depiction of the ramifications of rigid, close-minded adherence to religious doctrine. Although Loach takes pains to present all sides of the issues he raises, he courageously faces up to the truth about people's lives, which is his abiding strength. No doubt about it, "A Fond Kiss," in which everyone seems to be living his or her part, is one of his best.

'A Fond Kiss'

MPAA rating: R for some strong sexuality, and for language

Times guidelines: Mature themes, too intense for children

Atta Yaqub...Casim Khan

Eva Birthistle...Roisin Hanlon

Shabana Bakhsh...Tahara Khan

Shamshad Akhtar...Sadia Khan

Ahmad Riaz...Tariq Khan

A Castle Hill Productions presentation of a Sixteen Films production. Director Ken Loach. Producer Rebecca O'Brien. Screenplay Paul Laverty. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd. Editor Jonathan Morris Production designer Martin Johnson. Art directors Fergus Clegg, Ursula Cleary. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes. Exclusively at the Laemmle's Fairfax Cinemas, 7907 Beverly Blvd., (323) 655-4010.