The Story Of A Kid, By Kevin Lewis

THE KID (DVD)
Revolver Entertainment 

Release date: March 7th 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 111 minutes

Director: Nick Moran

Cast: Natascha McElhone, Ioan Gruffudd, Rupert Friend, James Fox, Bernard Hill, Augustus Prew

Since Nick Moran played Eddie in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) he’s become an accomplished playwright, film director and now with The Kid to add to his array of directing triumphs I have to say I’m pretty impressed with him.

The Kid, not quite entertaining, but far from dull has perfectly aligned all the components of a good film to provide a candid, filmic version of the best selling autobiography by Kevin Lewis.

Rupert Friend plays Kevin in this account of a kid suffering at the hands of his own parents.

As Kevin moves between his parent’s home and various foster homes, the harrowing retelling of his boyhood victimisation, overlooked by social services, brilliantly manages to avoid becoming a gushy self-help kind of film.

Set in the eighties the film does not solely focus on Kevin’s ill treatment ; Moran intercepts scenes of violence with clips of Margaret Thatcher leading the country into privatisation and disarray.

Amongst these scenes he further depicts social services at the time as a bunch of careless imbeciles.

As Kevin grows older and things worsen for him, he gets pushed further and further into the underground scene of violence and drugs in London.

Rather than being completely heart wrenching all the way through, at certain points Kevin becomes unappealing and the audience’s empathy for him is lost. There are no attempts to make him a glorious hero in this film and there’s not a lot of gloss, it’s a film about a guy who had a really awful childhood and gets out of it. It’s simple and really watchable.

An appropriate comparison would be Kidulthood (2006), directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Noel Clarke. I did enjoy Kidulthood and am aware of Clarke’s intentions when writing the film to reveal the violence that goes on amongst children in London beyond the radar of adults. However as both films were shocking and didn’t shy away from explicit scenes.

I felt that The Kid, with its slightly patchy editing and uneven script made more of an impact on me.

Although definitely not flawless, I think it’s an important film and it’s a shame it hasn’t been publicized more. But I’m really glad Nick Moran is making films now.