Liam

By Richard Schickel Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001
    • In Britain during the Great Depression, Dad (Ian Hart) loses his job when the shipyard is closed. His youngest child, Liam, played by the utterly adorable Anthony Borrows, is, meantime, priest-ridden as he confronts near occasions of sins both mortal and venial. We, of course, settle in for another movie in which a hard-pressed family smiles cheerfully through tough times. But don't get too comfortable. In his misery the father embraces anti-Semitism and native fascism, the boy's torments become distinctly unfunny, and this little film, unsparing but never unsympathetic, emerges as one of the year's best, most brutally honest movies.