Told across his journey into adulthood, troubled kid Kevin grows up in an abusive household ruled over by his Mother (an unrecognisable Natascha McElhone). After being failed by the child welfare system of the 1980's, Kevin (Rupert Friend) finally starts to turn his life around with the help of boxing enthusiast Alan (James Fox). With ambitious plans for the future that fall apart when Alan passes away, Kevin soon finds his life thrown back into turmoil with the underground bare knuckle boxing scene his only opportunity to earn money.

The Kid marks Moran's second stint in the director's chair after 2008's rock biopic Telstar, and unfortunately he's created a mostly dull affair with some amateurish direction choices. Under Moran's direction, there's never any scenes that allow the drama to build, averaging about 30 seconds in length before hastily jumping ahead to the next scene. It's hard to build an emotional attachment to Kevin Lewis' story when the film is in such a rush to show us as much gloom as possible. The first 40 minutes of the story are steeped in the kind of abject misery books like The Kid deal in (with the affectionate nickname 'Misery Memoirs'), but I left the film thinking that there's been some liberties taken to try and make the story more powerful.


If it was meant as an attack on the failings of the child welfare system, it would have been more effective if the film wasn't so painfully mawkish and overly melodramatic. However if you're a fan of the book or those of a similar ilk, The Kid delivers the kind of pathos pummeling, against all odds story you'd hope for. It fails to deliver a knock-out punch, instead issuing more of a wet slap.
Verdict
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