I'm afraid I didn't like this film. I can handle difficult-to-watch with the best of them - I think Tyranosaurus is the best film of 2011, but 'The Kid' catapults us through far too many years, characters and emotions, that it makes one giddy and rather nauseous.

I haven't read the novel and I'm sure that that more successfully tells Kevin's story. An unrecognisable, but usually very beautiful Natascha McElhone is Kevin's almost inhuman mother, a screaming, shouting performance that not only repels but disgraces both the actor and the film and her alcoholic husband (whose actor's name I cannot find) beat, scold and swear at their child that is so over-the-top that it's almost unbelievable.

Understandably, Kevin gets taken into care and at last, credible acting from the reassuring Uncle David, Bernard Hill and Heartbeat's Niamh Cusak, as the school nurse, who finds bruises all over Kevin's body. James Fox comes to both Kevin's - and our - rescue as the kind-hearted and good Alan, a comfortably-off married adopter.

However, where I feel director Nick Moran goes wrong is pitching 'The Kid' as both a gritty, urban Two Smoking Barrels movie and a sentimental rite of passage. They just don't mix. We, OK, I, find it difficult to empathise with Kevin, even and when it turns to running loss-making bars and getting beaten to a pulp in boxing matches (does Rupert Friend seriously look like he has the physique of a boxer?),then I began to dismiss the film more and more.

Yes, the tentative relationship with Jackie (Jodie Whittaker) was both welcome and touching but even that got a bit crazy toward the end. I know many found the film embracing and gripping, but I'm afraid I was left rather cold, with a slightly bad taste in my mouth.

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!

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.