Loach and his screenwriter Paul Lavery are sometimes painfully on-the-nose, borderline parodic, in their contrived kitchen sink sensibilities.

The final scene of “The Old Oak” reduced me, once again and for the final time, to tears.

It is unmistakably a Loach film: taciturn yet forthright, examining life in the cracks of a fractured society with deep compassion, plain-spoken anger and, perhaps more so than in the previous two films, a shot of hope.

The Old Oak never makes the mistake of allowing its characters to play the hero in a Hollywood way. Ebla Mari, in her film debut, handles a great deal of dialogue and emotional work with aplomb.