A Boy Called Dad

Have just come back from the Edinburgh Film Festival and having seen lots of films there, including the more popular, bigger budget films, this one really stands out as something special. Whilst watching the film I cried with laughter and cried with heartfelt emotion for the characters and their excellent portrayal of their situation. Brilliant acting and gorgeous scenery and camera work. I defy anyone to see this film and not enjoy it! Ian hart, as always, gives a very special, genuine performance but the most surprising performance is the effort put forward from the young lad who plays the teenage dad who goes on the run with his son. It's so heartening to see a depiction of teenage dads which isn't so incredibly negative. I didn't know what to expect but I can know say that I'm so glad to have seen this film.

Boy Called Dad- How good it was to see a refreshing, moving and relevant British film, something I've not seen since other low budget films like "This is England and Trainspotting". This is a film with a genuine desire to tell a story, convey a message, entertain and educate all with such integrity. The script was imaginative and real, the acting first class with characters we all know from the street round the corner. To see a film that is shot around my own childhood haunts such as the sea front at West Kirby instead of some distant exotic location is exciting and very pleasing. I hope this film launches Made Up North Productions into the mainstream of the British film industry as it should. Well worth a trip to see if you have the chance.

You don't have to have a child yourself to feel the emotion seeping out of every frame of this affecting film - everyone will relate to the themes of regret, responsibility and second chances.

A great performance by Kyle Ward, for his first film role he shows a real depth of emotion and surprising subtlety at times and Ian Hart in the role of his absent father is great as always.

An emotionally charged, and in places extremely funny, script combined with some breathtaking cinematography lift 'A Boy Called Dad' above many of its contemporaries. The result is a film that won't just tug at the heart strings, but will shear right through them. A simple story told with honesty and integrity; one that will stay with you long after you've left the cinema.

This film is not something I would purposely seek out to watch, it isn't something that would catch my eye if I stumbled on the trailer, but it is something that I am glad to have been shown to. I only watched this as part of my exam preparation for Media Studies and I honestly think it is one of the most eye opening things I have ever seen. It covers issues that are very much alive today and really gets to the raw emotion of the situation Robbie is placed in. The film is incredibly well made and I seriously recommend that people go out and buy it, I promise that you will like it, even if you don't expect that you will. A Boy Called Dad proves the potential that independent film makers have and has blasted a massive hole in the market to be filled with feature films just like this that are hugely successful in doing what they do and are just as worthy of viewers as big Hollywood films we all go to see.

For those who praised both the directing and writing of A Boy Called Dad might like to know that Brian Percival (who directed the multi-award winning ITV drama 'Downton Abbey') won a BAFTA along with screenwriter Julie Rutherford. That was a short, About A Girl, in 2001.

This re-teaming in 2009, a small £1million budget and a welcome star name of Ian Hart have produced a modest little gem of a Brit movie, filmed in Liverpool and north Wales. A Boy Called Dad stars 14 y.o. Kyle Ward, a natural and fine performance (though according to IMDb, hasn't been in anything since) from a lad who has a one night stand - and then fatherhood. The mother of the child has little contact with Robbie (Ward) and lives separately.

Enter jack-the-lad Robbie's Dad, a cheeky Liverpudlian with a VW pickup. He left Robbie and his mother some years before and says that he had moved to Ireland, when he had in fact, not. Robbie, after some reacquainting and bonding with his Dad, feels rejected and goes off the rails, kidnaps his own son and makes off in a car.

The film does have its moments of action, bursts of anger and a lot of quiet moments of contemplation and emotion. It won't suit everyone, though its very humanity should appeal to us all. It's whether we choose to actually sit down and watch it rather than something more gimmicky and instantly gratifying. It's not a great movie, but a good one.