When you want to make a social commentary, you don't take the most excessive case there is, the story should be widely relatable. Or you should make the relatable elements stronger like, say, in Pearl. I mean, very few people kill their parents like she does, but her story is almost every girl's story: the daughter's role she's forced into, the absolute control over her body and soul, the craving for escape, and the complete lack of capabilities to exist outside of the family, because she's deliberately debilitated, prevented from maturing. The only moment I felt close to Liam's story was when he and his parents gather in this sort of a family portrait: the abusive father, the drugged mother, and the terrified kid clinging to each other in some twisted love embrace. Despite there's always ambivalence in family matters thought it is unlikely that Liam would want to go home like he does, even less so - that he would want to go back to school, where he had to soil his pants to be left alone. By the way, this part definitely had to be shown and not told, especially when you build your whole character's personality on that feature. The violence both at the boy's home and at the institution is out of context. We just see some random scenes and the only conclusions we could make is that some people are animals. Otherwise, the actors playing the mother and the father are pretty great at portraying someone out of control. Now, I don't know what was the idea, but to me the social workers seem useless. They have no authority and are pretty unprofessional too, taking, for example, personal calls during therapy sessions. They are also unfair and make Liam feel like he's in the wrong when he's trying to defend himself. But still, he bonds with them. I just hope that reflects his habit of loving whomever is close and doesn't promote the social workers' behavior as helpful. All in all, a pity, because child abuse is an epidemic and should be exposed with powerful examples, so that people cannot say: oh, here's what they do in third-rate movies. No, that's what you do.
