There must be less than one in a thousand that make it with the background of Kevin, the protagonist of this movie. And he does it with the help of his own story only, which, of course, would quickly wear thin if it was told by millions, which, of course, is the reason why so few of these stories are published.Why not tell the story of one who did not succeed, the story of the 999 others? Well, such a story would not glorify the system that produces these stories, now would it? If you take the story of teen Kevin - now, there was a good story that ringed true! The first half of this film is a 10. The second half, I would like to describe as a -10 if I believed in negative numbers, which I do not.And for all of those who do not understand what I am saying with this review because they are not very used in thinking at all, I give a hint. It's a pyramid, you see. And it's a pyramid because that stabilizes power the best. And in a pyramid you see, one has to climb down from above to let one from below climb up so that the pyramid stays the same. Got it? Get it. Good!

I absolutely hated the time when i was in my early to mid teens. I lived in a dreadful part of London and I went to a school that I absolutely hated. In fact most aspects of my life were not very good. The Kid is a film that charts the life of a lad who was brought up as a teenager at the same time as I was ( the early eighties) and who also had it rough.This is a gritty, some would say dark , movie that pulls no punches. I loved this film simply because it reminded me a lot of the period it is set in and of small aspects of my own situation. I found this film moving extremely moving and it's a shame it seems to have been released under the radar of most people.If you can get hold of The Kid I recommend you do. Your in for a rough ride!

British films tend to be either comedies about class (Full Monty et al) or rock hard dramas. This is the latter without a doubt, but it is not out and out gangster violence - it is a serious and thoughtful drama punctuated with several bare knuckle fight scenes and frankly the home life is starker. For my money this is the best British drama since the excellent Brick Lane and it bought to mind most though earlier films of the 80s, the era it depicts, Mona Lisa and The Long Good Friday.Yes, it is gritty and the script doesn't need any Nick Hornby touches to get to reality - this is a frankly startling look at the underside of an abusive family and the story of the Kid and how he tries again and again from childhood to manhood to get out from under only to find himself trapped again and again by unbelievable twists of fate.Knowing this is based on a true story adds poignancy. This really is an involving film, even given the excessive language and violence which in its context is (just about) justifiable. At the end of the day this was, for me, a brilliant drama, totally engrossing, well-made, the performances were unbelievably believable, though God help the child that has parents like that.....Highly recommended as being one of the best and strongest British dramas - it captures the spirit of the 80s and the amazing true story involved.

In contrast to the other reviews I must say that this film was surprisingly bad. I am not sure where it went so wrong really, but it is probably the casting. I just could not see one person that was actually believable in his/her role. The mother of the boy was just so badly acted I felt actually embarrassed in the cinema. Also I think they could have done much better with the casting of the lead. I am not from UK, but the poor people from the council estates where the characters came from do NOT sound like some posh Chelsea public school prick. He was much better in the Pride and Prejudice. Only character that was even slightly OK was the guy that played the Kid in his early teens. I actually could see that kid being abused at home. All in all the film fell flat on many occasions, too many stereotypes, too many things we have seen already.After an hour I felt so board I started playing with my phone.I know I may sound like a overly negative person, but I go to movies 2 times a week and don't remember the last time I walked out on the movie before the end. Unfortunately The Kid was the case... 3 points for the effort though as obviously someone worked on this film, but I would never recommend this to anyone....