LIAM
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Lions Gate Films Director: Stephen Frears Writer: Jimmy McGovern Cast: Ian Hart, Claire Hackett, Anthony Borrows, David Hart, Megan Burns, Anne Reid, Russell Dixon, Julia Deakin, Andrew Schofield, Bernadette Shortt, David Carey, David Knopov, Jane Gurnett, Gema Loveday, Martin Hancock
It would be easy to look at the first few frames of "Liam"--the sepia photography, the Liverpudlian row houses, the depressing furnishings inside the home of a family of five being supported precariously by one breadwinner, and think, "Uh, oh, another one of those biographical sketches of the writer's or director's or novelist's childhood seen through the eyes of a little tyke. Does it seem like yesterday that we saw 'Angela's Ashes'?" You wouldn't be entirely wrong, because "Liam" does indeed draw on the scripter, Jimmy McGovern's early life experience. But I know of no film that better illustrates how trying economic conditions can lead to the rise of extremist movements, in this case fascism--and fascism not where you expect it in, say, France, whose local people collaborated all too often with the Nazi occupation, or Poland, where Jews were executed by local fascist gangs when they returned home after the war was over. We're talking England, the European land that took in 10,000 Jewish children while Nazism was rising on the Continent (think "Into the Arms of Strangers") and who bravely stood up to the Luftwaffe despite attack after tiring and devastating assault.
Featuring a stunning performance by Anthony Borrows as the 8-year-old title character through whose eyes the drama takes place, "Liam" hones in on an occasionally happy family in Liverpool during the 1930's, part of the city's minority Catholic population which occasionally enjoy spats with their Protestant neighbors, each belting out patriotic songs that embrace their separate identities. The head of household (forcefully played by the wonderful Ian Hart) makes a decent living in the local steel mills, but when bad times force the closing of the plant, Dad is compelled to line up with his fellows every morning hoping desperately to get day work. His wife (Claire Hackett) becomes increasingly nasty as the family faces near starvation, while Liam is repeatedly browbeaten in his Catholic school by Father Ryan (Russell Dixon) and his teacher Mrs Abernathy (Anne Reid)--who conjure up the fires of hell and warn them that their souls are not just dirty but filthy.
Given the hardships faced by the families in the neighborhood, it becomes almost inevitable that some would fall under the influence of local extremist groups. At one meeting verbal pyrotechnics break out between a Leninist speaker who urges the men to join the Communist party but is opposed by another who warns that the Reds would destroy the churches. As the family fortunes spiral downward, Liam's dad eventually joins the Blackshirts, or the Union of British Fascists, leading him on a private war against the local Jews--particularly the wealthy and kind Mrs Samuels (Jane Gurnett) who employs his daughter, Teresa (Megan Burns) as a maid, paying her extra to deliver messages to her lover.
Considerable time is taken up by director Stephen Frears ("The Snapper," "My Beautiful Launderette," "Prick Up Your Ears") in displaying the intimidation of the eight-year-olds in their Catholic school--not surprising when you realize that the screenwriter, Jimmy McGovern, shocked many Catholic moviegoers with his 1994 film "Priest." That film, which featured Linus Roache and Antonia Bird, is a provocative drama about a man of the cloth who finds himself caught between sacred vows and his own personal beliefs, especially his closeted homosexuality, and pulls out the stops in presentation of what Mr. McGovern saw as messy Church politics. "Liam"'s Church-bashing will remind movie buffs of a more recent picture, Sydney Macartney's "A Love Divided," highlighting a Protestant woman married to a Catholic who defies the local priest and kidnaps her daughter Eileen rather than allow her to attend a Catholic school.
Filmed and edited by Andrew Dunn and Kristina Hetheringtom respectively, "Liam" does not linger too long on any scene, as Frears keeps the momentum through frequent changes of scene
People like to blame others for their troubles, and why not? We have difficulty accepting responsibility for our own failures and when hard times are the fault of an abstraction known as business cycles--as was the case during the Great Depression-- we look to something concrete to condemn. The government? Not a bad target, sometimes. But it's even easier to ascribe our problems to a relatively defenseless group. Minorities and immigrants might be the target du jour given the right political and economic conditions and we do know that both Communism and anti-Semitism rose during the Depression in both England and the U.S. Given the presence of skinhead movements today--and a slew of race riots just the other day in London--we wonder how much worse the chaos would be if times got really bad. Having observed convincing performances all around in "Liam," especially by the very young title character, we may consider ourselves warned.
Not Rated. Running time: 91 minutes. (C) 2001 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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