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Liam

2001, Movie, R, 90 mins

Liam: Review

LIAM
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Stephen Frears's adaptation of The Back Crack Boy, Joseph McKeown's novel about desperate times in 1930's Liverpool, conforms to the director's pattern of following a solid hit with a dodgy miss. It opens with a jubilant New Year's Eve celebration, as Liverpool puts on a brave front in the face of England's slide into economic depression. That stiff upper lip soon begins to tremble: The dockyards (which are owned by the Samuels, a wealthy Jewish family) are shutting down, putting many dads out of work and exacerbating already existing tensions between native Liverpudlians and recent Irish immigrants. Da (Ian Hart), one of the economic casualties, worries about supporting his family but refuses church charity, even as his wife (Claire Hackett) points out that they've paid into the parish for years. While eldest son Con (David Hart) drinks himself into a stupor, daughter Teresa (Megan Burns) goes to work for the Samuels, who live like the Finzi-Continis behind a high, gated wall that shuts out the lengthening dole queues and the riots, as well as the rising tide of anti-Semitism. Mrs. Samuels (Jane Gurnett) is carrying on an affair right under the nose of her husband (David Knopov), and Teresa's role as housemaid soon segues into that of a go-between and look-out. Con flirts with socialism, Da joins a dangerous group of British fascist agitators, and at the center of it all is freckle-faced youngest son Liam (Anthony Barrows), who barely speaks on account of a persistent stammer and whose mind is preoccupied by other terrors — like the pits of Hell and women's pubic hair. The Catholic church comes in for a serious drubbing — screenwriter Jimmy McGovern also penned the controversial PRIEST — and the film springs to life when it concerns itself with Liam (whose family is Protestant) and his experience at Catholic school, where he's busy having the fear of God scared into him by his teacher (the superb Anne Reid) and her priestly cohort (Russell Dixon). For what amounts to a fairly sentimental glance backward, the film is oddly styled; Andrew Dunn (who also shot the baroque MONKEYBONE) favors oblique angles and lighting worthy of an Italian horror movie. The film's interesting political context is given curiously short shrift; even the fascists, who make a late third-act appearance, are unconvincing cartoons, ridiculous in their black shirts and nearly foaming at the mouth. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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