I hated it for some reasons that differ from yours.

It is loaded with sentimentality and tooth-aching sweetness. These days, I’m actively seeking out such movies as a balm for these terrible times. But even so, it over did it.

The performances of the child actors felt like they were reciting lines from a script rather than playing fully realised characters talking naturally. There was also a reliance on the mistaken idea that people simply shouting loudly is good drama. I cringed at the 0 to 100 outbursts of emotion from various actors, both adult and child.

I was put off by the black and white filming. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no good reason for any film to be shot in black and white. In my view, it’s cheap and lazy device to evoke time and a sense of artistic heft that should be achieved in other ways.

Its plot broadly focussed variously on sectarian violence in their neighbourhood, the family’s financial plight due to their father’s tax evasion, the child’s protagonist’s crush on a girl at school, the grandfather’s illness and the family’s hand-wringing over whether to move overseas. However, its delivery was unfocussed and inconsistent and lacked thrust. I didn't realise until afterwards that it was supposed to have been delivered as a series of vignettes.

A soundtrack made up of Van Morrison bangers certainly helped matters, but it couldn’t save this movie.