This film kept getting pushed down to the bottom of my 'to watch' list, but I'm really glad that I got to it in the end.It was refreshing to see a teenage pregnancy story that took us out of grimy (sub)urban life, instead offering expansive views of country and coastline. So although many of the themes were difficult and at times harrowing, these extreme wide shots gave us a bit of room to breathe.This film also took us away from the female, or more accurately, the mother, which again is unusual for a story dealing with teenage pregnancy. Robbie's mum is always kept at a distance and behind a barrier, such as at the end of an unanswered phone. Subsequent to his rapid conception and birth, baby Elliot's mum is only seen walking in the background now and again. This allowed the film to effectively focus on father-son relationships spanning four generations.However, this focus on the father figure almost left me craving a little feminine input, if only for the sake of balance. Luckily, the film delivered on this through the initially mute character, Nia, who has a story to tell and eventually manages to tell it.Another interesting aspect to do with storytelling is the portrayal of the media. The newspaper headlines and TV snippets paint the picture of a dangerous, possibly armed menace. The film will then cut to young Robbie lovingly taking care of his child, thus undermining this face-of-evil built up by the media. We're reminded that this is about an individual on a journey.After recurring references to drowning and water, Robbie's journey unsurprisingly culminates in a cliff edge. As with all ambiguous endings, I have an ambiguous response. Half of me applauds the film for ending with such suspense. The other half just wants to know what happened...

When he becomes a father at the tender age of 14, Robbie's life quickly spirals out of control. Feeling angry and neglected by his own dad, he starts a series of events that will catapult him at great speed into adulthood.....Even though the first five minutes had me fooled into thinking that this could have been some kind of Shane meadows type comedy, this has an air of gloom from the off-start.But even though this feeling stays with the film right until the very last frame, it's a good story, told with a very truthful tone throughout, and with some outstanding performances from the central characters.The first act is the bonding segment between father and Son, which is very sweet and Jolly, but if you notice throughout this part of the film, the weather becomes increasingly dull and cold, and this indicates the decline of the boys attitude.The film from there on has a really dark sympathetic side to it. Even though the boy has done something bad, you do in some weird way wish him well on his journey, in the sense that he looks after the child well.like i've already said, it's a solid movie, but thoroughly depressing.

This is a drama about the father/son relationship. It follows Robbie a new 14 year old father whose disappointment with his relationship with his father leads him to make some wrong decisions concerning his new born son. It is a well acted but bleak tale with an excellent performances from Kyle Ward as the young lad who wants to look after his son but is woefully under prepared for such a task. Ian Hart also does a good job as the stay away father that his son doesn't want to turn into. A Boy Called Dad maybe would have benefited by following a more traditional path like the strong start of the movie as the situations that occur later are pretty implausible. As a result it does feel like this was a missed opportunity to create something really special. The middle of the film feels contrived but the ending I thought was pretty thought provoking and pulled the film back from disappointment.This is a good small budget film and one I enjoyed and would recommend.

I think that overall A boy called dad is a very deep and very enjoyable movie. At first glance the film seems to be about teenage pregnancy, but there are so many more aspects to it. Such as how the method of fatherhood gets passed down through the generations and how the protagonist changes as he takes care of his son. I thought that Kyle Ward did a great job as Robbie, you could see that he was capable of great compassion but at the same time he could get very angry, overall the standard of acting was high all round. The cinematography was very lush, they chose to go lightly on the colour correction which gave it a more realistic feel but it the shots still look fantastic and compel you to watch on. The story was well written and the dialogue felt natural and original which was great. I would have liked to have seen more of the mother of Robbie's son, we don't see much of her throughout the movie and we never hear any of her story which could be quite interesting. But the story is mainly about the four generations of this family. There are some points when I felt like I had no idea what Robbie's plan was or what he was trying to do which didn't really achieve the exciting effect it should have. But these moments can be forgiven, the rest of the story is very compelling and will keep you on the edge of your seat at the end. Overall I really enjoyed A boy called Dad, especially the ending which I thought was very clever.