The Kid review

This biopic spends too much time wallowing to be uplifting...

Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

If you’re going to make a biopic about an abused child who grows up to be a bare-knuckle boxer, it might help to hire an actor who looks like he can actually handle himself in a scrap or two.

Not Telstar director Nick Moran, though, who hands the role to the pasty-faced Rupert Friend in a downbeat hard-luck story that desperately wants to be Britain’s answer to Precious.

The miscasting doesn’t stop there thanks to Natascha McElhone’s outlandish turn as Rupert’s mother, a screeching fishwife who looks like she’s stepped off the pages of Viz.

Yet the real flaw here is The Kid’s crunching lack of subtlety, Moran turning Kevin Lewis’ autobiographical tell-all into one long, lurid wallow in society’s dregs.

Freelance Writer

Neil Smith is a freelance film critic who has written for several publications, including Total Film. His bylines can be found at the BBC, Film 4 Independent, Uncut Magazine, SFX, Heat Magazine, Popcorn, and more.