Product Details

• Actors: Anthony Borrows, Ian Hart, Claire Hackett, David Hart, Megan Burns
• Directors: Stephen Frears
• Writers: Jimmy McGovern
• Producers: Colin McKeown, David M. Thompson, Martin Tempia, Michael André, Sally Hibbin
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate
• VHS Release Date: March 12, 2002
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005UM68
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,788 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Liverpool in the 1930s: Depression: and an Adorable Kid, July 6, 2002

By 

Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Liam [VHS] (VHS Tape)

After critically praised "High Fidelity," director Stephen Frears came back to his homeground with "Liam," which traces a family living in Liverpool during the time of the 1930s, immediately after the Great Depression.

Though, with justification, some people pointed out the resemblamce between this one and "Angela's Ashes," you must know that "Liam" is set in Liverpool, England while the other in Ireland. So it is very suitable that "Liam" cast Ian Hart as Dad of the family because Liverpool-born actor once played a very credible portrait of John Lennon. But you may now remember him as Prof. Quirrell in "Harry Potter." Whichever you are, he totally remodelled himself, to become this father of 7-year-old Liam, whose stuttering sometimes works for his advantage in this hard times of Depression.

The film follows the life of Liam's family members, each of which strrugles to live under conditions of life that gradually get harder. Liam goes to a Catholic school where he is taught about the hell and its fire; his elder sister Teresa starts a job of a housemaid in a rich Jewish family, where she inspite of herself helps to conceal the mother's affair from her husband; and Liam's father, who lost his job at factory, resorts to entering the membership of radical political party.

It seems at first sight that the film is dark, grim, and somber to put off many of you, but it shouldn't. The fact is, thanks to the fast-paced editing of the film, and very sly humors of Jimmy McGovern (of controvertial "Priest"), which include ones with sexual nature -- little Liam had to witness his mother's naked body accidentally, and thinks he has committed a sin --the film is always watchable. You may call it a light-weight work from Frears (running time is about 90 minutes), but it has good acting all around, convincing production designs, and most of all Anthony Borrow's adorable Liam, which itself is worth your money. He has no previous acting experience, but you won't believe it after seeing his face.

Also good is Ian Hart, as always he is. But his final act as Dad, which is very drastic and melodramatic, looks out of tune, and certainly many of you might feel disappointed (and I was too). But I know a Japanese reviewer who pointed out that final conclusion shows an irony -- while Liam himself is terribly afraid of being burnt in hell, it is not he that receives that fate. Is the ending a right one? Please judge it for yourself.

Very gripping drama about a family in Liverpool, "Liam" tells you a thing or two about living there at that time, and influece of religion on the children. You may wonder why Teresa had to say "I'm sorry" while it is Dad that should say so. It is thus always engaing, and thought-provoking. If you didn't like "Angela's Ashes" (which I liked), you may go for it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 1930's era seen through the eyes of a stuttering little boy, October 15, 2001

By 

Tracy (santa cruz, US, Canada) - See all my reviews

Great 30's feel of hardships, survival and hopes- all seen through the eyes of a truly innocent, little boy. The movie had the unique ability to make the viewer feel apart of the era/movie. Oh and how one feels for Liam who is cursed with a stutter at the most unfortunate moments. The Catholic religion is portrayed rather accurately for the times and one can really feel the oppression on the little souls of the school children; let alone of the struggling adults. The father takes a dissaterous spiral and the mum is just trying to hold everyone together and still be a God loving Catholic.
I believe the movie could have been as good as Life is Beautiful, Billy Elliot and Il Postino if only it had been an hour longer- I would have sat that long to have the supporting characters and the story developed more. The accents are a bit trying at times but not as hard to understand as Billy Elliot. I would pay to see this again, after all who can resist Liam reciting "Seven and a ton a, Seven and a ton a... my mum says seven and a ton a". Running time aprox 1.5 hours.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Catechism Lesson, July 11, 2005

By 

Vince Perrin "Byline" (Stockton, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Liam (DVD)

The violence that ends this small but strong film pulls together all the narratives that have come before, leaving you limp. The act is inevitable, the irony of it unexpected. The victim is innocence itself. Everything seems to lead to this shattering moment, one for which we are not prepared. The quiet coda before the credits, when the victim actually apologizes, does not let us off the hook. You are going to hate how you feel.

A hardscrabble family in Liverpool before WWII is burdened further when the father loses his job and self esteem, blames the Irish and the Jews, and becomes an anti-Semetic lout. We watch his descent through two of his children, a teenage girl and her seven-year-old brother, Liam, a stuttering lad who is also being sucked into the supernatural rites and educational wrongs of Roman Catholicism back when the Church was blindly obeyed.

Catholics are not going to like this movie much. It leaves them no wiggle room. Without being explicit or mean-spirited, and years before sexual scandal and Vatican politics wrecked their havoc, director Stephen Frears has made Catholicism the villain. It is clear from the start, especially in the schoolroom scenes, that the source of all misery is the superstition and institutional myth emanating from the pulpit and the confessional.

This is a time when depression families turned to the Church for solace, only to have it unknowingly withheld. No wonder this unhappy family turns dysfunctional, its members set against themselves and their neighbors. All the actors are remarkably natural, the direction and cinematography unobtrusive, and the script honest almost to a fault. Little Liam is unlikely to grow up unharmed by his family and his faith. It hurts even to think about him.