Lamb

In one of Liam Neeson’s earliest starring roles, he plays an errant priest who kidnaps a vulnerable boy from an abusive Catholic school

In one of Liam Neeson’s earliest starring roles, he plays an errant priest named Lamb who kidnaps a vulnerable boy, Owen (Hugh O'Conor), from an abusive Catholic school.

The pair absconds to London, where Lamb’s initial feelings of relief and freedom soon give way to a growing realisation of the enormity and criminality of his actions, especially given the boy’s frequent epileptic fits. Neeson’s recent reinvention as an unstoppable action hero seems a world away from his sensitive portrayal of the title character here, and similarly the film’s sympathetic depiction of a clearly problematic (though non-sexual) relationship may seem very much of its time, for today’s audiences. But Lamb is a thought-provoking, adeptly played and occasionally disturbing adaptation of Bernard MacLaverty’s acclaimed novel.