class=”alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-26638″ title=”the kid” src=”https://www.heyuguys.com/images/2010/06/the-kid-220×150.jpg” alt=”” width=”220″ height=”150″ />Nick Moran returns to directing with The Kid, based on the autobiography and the true story of Kevin Lewis’ abusive childhood, this is one of the British premieres for the Edinburgh Film Festival.
The film opens up with Kevin Lewis (Rupert Friend) being thrown out of a truck and entering an abandoned house, where he plans to kill himself in an empty bedroom. We soon flashback to the eighties where we see Kevin as a child and soon find out that the house was his old childhood home.
After seeing his lifestyle as a child and what he had to go through, we see Kevin as a teenager a few years later where he is moved into a foster family after teachers sees his bruised body. The focus moves to his attempts to make a name for himself and what struggles he has with the challenges that lay in front of him.
A problem that I had was the way that the film chose to show glimpses of certain characters and and then decided to not bring them back. I thought that the way they treated these characters in particular did make them feel as though they were not important even though they helped the main character to develop.
Another problem I had with the film was with the ending and I will not say what it is for those who want to see this film, but it seems to forget the very dark tones in the film and wraps it up in a very quick, light tone and the writers obviously wanted to give it a Hollywood-style ending for this dark film.
Despite my two major issues with the way this film was written and made, I found the way the very caring and gentle characters whom Kevin encounters during the course of the story to be really interesting as they give the main character his reason to learn from his terrible lifestyle.
All three of the actors who play Kevin Lewis manage to do a great job in performing the different stages of Kevin’s life and they definitely help to make the film very watchable. With these performances, as well as the ups and downs of the story, this is a really good film overall and is worth seeing if you like true stories and British dramas.
Photo by: John Rogers
