Pride goeth into tragedy. There is a solution to the Human Condition: Death. But before we shuffle off this mortal coil, we must do a lot of suffering.

      Stephen Frears' new Depression era pic "Liam" focuses on some of that suffering and pain as it relates to a little Brit, Liam (Anthony Borrows delivering a performance that may one up anything done by Haley Joel Osment). Characterized by Frears' propensity for delivering blunt reality, this film delivers straight away not sugar-coating the way things might have been and probably still are today.

      The story concerns 6 or 7 year old Liam and his family of five. Liam is the youngest child; he has a sister, and an older brother. When money begins to get tight, his sister, Teresa (Megan Burns) takes a job working as a maid for a rich local Jewish family. Teresa's mother (Claire Hackett) tells her daughter not to clean the family's lavatory. Later, Teresa is found in the bathroom of the Jewish family huddled over the toilet. Liam's dad (Ian Hart) is laid off from his job and cannot find work. He is a very bitter man with something negative in his past.

      We get a scary and sometimes humorous look at the fear instilled by the Catholic Church in Liam and his sister. Religious training is rigorous complete with speeches about black marks on one's soul for misdeeds and how a person's sin actually "drives the nails deeper" into the hands and body of Christ. This is how it always is, no matter what religion, shame and fear tend to be the tools by which the weak, young, and unintelligent or unsophisticated can be manipulated. Of course, a little discipline and control are not all bad, but taken to extremes they can be crippling.

      Political undertones abound. A Socialist rally is broken up by police and Fascism is beginning to take hold. Given the dire economic condition of Liam's family it is believable that one of the members may be tempted by the comforts of nationalism and bigotry. Such sentiments are not foreign to our current political climate--an American flag hangs proudly from my front porch to display my commitment to the cause whatever cause the President, Gen. Powell and others in Washington tell us to be committed to. Its not sarcasm that is intended here but just a weak attempt at caution.

      The movie is filmed in a gritty, grimy fashion adding to its authenticity. The performances are dead-on with a wonderful almost cat-fight turn by Claire Hackett as Liam's mother. Director Frears manages to avoid anything sappy while giving us a character in Liam that is innocent and lovable.

      As a final note, I really must admire the varied body of Frears' work. Here he goes home again, but prior to "Liam," we saw last year's underrated "High Fidelity," and back in 1990, Frears gave us one of the best examples of neo-noir "The Grifters." I personally cannot wait to see what he does next, maybe a little science fiction?

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2001