It started promisingly enough not quite as ponderous as some reviewers would have it but the ending was dire and unnecessary.
The idea being that a boy has grown up with tales of his dead father being a hero, but all that understanding changes as events progress.
It is immediately post 2nd World War in Britain (say 1946-8). Birkenhead and Liverpool are indicated but not made explicit and does not matter - it is not a Merseyside tale, but we are not in the South of Britain either. Some reviewers have complained about strong Northern accents, but I did not notice that, then although I am a Londoner, I have spent ten years on Merseyside.
Our teenage hero of the title has been raised by his young widowed Mum who has remarried and is much in love with second new husband. Mother in law from first marriage (Shiela Hancock) who cannot get rid of her false memories of her dead son, is a part of the family
The son becomes the hero as we see him at school making a fairly superficial relationship with the new girl at school. Mum gets pregnant, father turns up with a (sort of believable) explanation for how he had been thought a dead hero, then the script gets ridiculous.
Nonetheless I stayed with it to see how it all worked out.
I liked the period aspect and seeing Shiela Hancock, so it was not completely wasted for me, but this was not the sort of drama that gets one revisiting one's understanding and experience of humanity or adds anything to general knowledge about our recent past.
You'll probably get a better outcome by spending the hour and a half reading a book or doing something creative but if you are determined to be entertained by a moving picture with humans performing, it is not a complete waste of time!
The idea being that a boy has grown up with tales of his dead father being a hero, but all that understanding changes as events progress.
It is immediately post 2nd World War in Britain (say 1946-8). Birkenhead and Liverpool are indicated but not made explicit and does not matter - it is not a Merseyside tale, but we are not in the South of Britain either. Some reviewers have complained about strong Northern accents, but I did not notice that, then although I am a Londoner, I have spent ten years on Merseyside.
Our teenage hero of the title has been raised by his young widowed Mum who has remarried and is much in love with second new husband. Mother in law from first marriage (Shiela Hancock) who cannot get rid of her false memories of her dead son, is a part of the family
The son becomes the hero as we see him at school making a fairly superficial relationship with the new girl at school. Mum gets pregnant, father turns up with a (sort of believable) explanation for how he had been thought a dead hero, then the script gets ridiculous.
Nonetheless I stayed with it to see how it all worked out.
I liked the period aspect and seeing Shiela Hancock, so it was not completely wasted for me, but this was not the sort of drama that gets one revisiting one's understanding and experience of humanity or adds anything to general knowledge about our recent past.
You'll probably get a better outcome by spending the hour and a half reading a book or doing something creative but if you are determined to be entertained by a moving picture with humans performing, it is not a complete waste of time!