A down-at-heel Brit biopic proves rewarding against the odds...

Alain de Botton once wrote a chapter entitled How To Suffer Successfully. It is either an oxymoron or, perhaps, a prescient insight into the life of best-selling crime author Kevin Lewis. And whilst de Botton was referencing Proust, there is a certain kinship, however indirect, between the French literary genius and Lewis, whose acclaimed memoirs The Kid and The Kid Moves On he has now adapted into a film alongside actor-turned-director Nick Moran.

The story focuses on Lewis (portrayed by Rupert Friend, Augustus Prew and William Finn Miller) and his impoverished adolescence in 1980s London as an intelligent but abused child with a penchant for doodling on walls, who is shuffled between foster homes whilst being bullied at school. Despite his upbringing, and with the support of a few unsung heroes along the way, Lewis tries to make something of himself, but only seems to sink deeper as he mixes with the wrong sort of company in order to survive financially and emotionally.

From a commercial perspective The Kid should never have made it past the pitch. A long-suffering boy, an introvert, who is bullied, bitten and whipped by his unstable mother is hardly going to trouble Twilight or Toy Story 3 in the box-office ratings. That there is no discernible plot, nor gratuitous titillation, should only add to the problem. Perhaps then there is something extra, a je ne sais quoi, a raised eyebrow at a vital moment that captures the essence of our being? Well, no, actually. The acting is okay, the fight scenes rubbish, and the riffing - the scene interplay - never really sparks due to Kevin’s weak-willed persona.

The question, to put it bluntly, is why, then, did I enjoy this film? Surely not because it is a true story, nor due to its success as a memoir – clearly the two reasons it ever became financed - but rather, in that indirect manner, that we cannot taint it with accusations of a lack of realism, nor of a self-flagellating ‘oh look at me suffer’ kind of spite. Yes, we get annoyed when our hero gets trampled on and then apologises for it, but this actually happened and therefore I can suspend my disbelief. This is vitally important given that there are some quite extraordinary scenes taking place, not least Kevin’s desire to drop out of school to become a stock-market trader without any qualifications or expertise.

Above all, though, The Kid is a story full of heart and that is ultimately what maintains our interest. Ioan Gruffudd’s brief interlude as a teacher is particularly moving and is certainly the highlight of film, which makes it a particular shame that the story precluded him from having more screen time. Furthermore, despite the rather relentless nature of the bleakness and suffering – perhaps a little too ‘heavy’ for my taste – the ending is well-crafted and not over-sentimental, nor preachy despite one unnecessarily cringeworthy romantic moment straight from the Hollywood textbook. In fact, the only telling fault is that every scene is very much ‘on the nose’, when some moments really cried out for a little more subtlety. Perhaps a writer with more cinematic experience could have resolved this without detracting from the facts of the story.

The similarity, then, with Proust is not so much that Kevin Lewis is recapturing time in art to transcend the past and present, but rather that he is unlocking time by the same means, unburdening himself from acute and painful memories and thus allowing himself to live fully in the present.

The Kid will be released by Revolver Entertainment on 17 September, 2010.

Contact Ben Lamy

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