You can tell "Scrapper" is heartfelt, and it has what could have been a heart tugging premise if it had been better made. But the movie is anemic and undercooked. It doesn't build out characters enough for you to feel any of the things the movie clearly wants you to be feeling about them.

It also doesn't help that there's not a lot of rooting interest in these people. The dad played by Harrison Dickinson is kind of a jerk, and I think we're supposed to see that he's grown by the time the movie's over and see is reentry into his daughter's life as a good thing. But he remains a jerk, and doesn't grow, and encourages his daughter to steal bikes and get away with assaulting other kids. The happy ending this movie forces on us didn't feel all that happy to me. I've known dead beat dads in real life, and the movie was more convinced than I was that this guy was going to stop being a dead beat.

Grade: C.

Twelve-year-old Georgie lives by herself after her mother passes away, staying just ahead of social services and school with fairly implausible lies. When her biological Dad turns up out of the blue, her life shifts in a new direction.

Lola Campbell is a discovery and her performance alone makes the ticket price worthwhile. Unfortunately, too many other elements are sup-par. I get that it is a fairytale and that the film is attempting to show that working class life does not have to be miserable. But if we are re-inventing representation of the working class, why are they thieves? The Greek chorus of oafish social workers, snobby classmates, and three well-dressed dudes on bikes is cloying. The male teacher, especially, comes across as one-dimensional, with some unfunny comment about grief only taking a morning to get over. In fact, the treatment of grief in general does not convince. Georgie makes mention once of the five stages of grief, but never returns to this theme. Other elements seem tacked on for no narrative reason, such as the West Ham shirt, and Georgie's hearing aid. The one element that does work well is the magic realism notion of Georgie building a tower to Heaven, in a room she keeps locked for herself. Having said that, on-the-nose elements such as a big circle in the ceiling with BREAK written next to it are indicative of overall clumsy scripting. The comedy, too, is fairly flat. I think I smiled once. And the shaky-cam gets annoying.

Yes, it's heartwarming; yes, the father-daughter interaction has fleeting moments of real warmth. But I never really felt any genuine affection for this story, and never really invested in the characters. Too many elements, such as talking spiders, seemed contrived and manipulative.

I will enjoy following Lola Campbell's career. However, with regard to the claims that this film is somehow indicative of a renaissance in British filmmaking, that is nothing more than spin.

"Georgie" (Lola Campbell) ingeniously manages to hoodwink social services following the death of her mother, and so lives on her own and makes a living running an unique cycle recycling programme with her friend "Ali" (Ali Uzun) that keeps them in ready cash. One afternoon, a guy leaps the back fence and introduces himself as her absentee father "Jason" (Harris Dickinson). She wants nothing to do with him, but he's no quitter and over the next hour or so we see the pair gradually realise what they have been missing in the years they spent apart. There isn't really much jeopardy here but what there is, is chemistry, The young Campbell is hugely charismatic and her mischievous but decent characterisation of a latter day urchin is really quite engaging. It's also one of Dickinson's more characterful efforts too. He doesn't rely on his looks and his musculature - he is also delivering us an enjoyable performance to watch as their relationship evolves - and not always smoothly. The writing offers us a dialogue that comes across as genuine, funny and for a low-ish budget effort this really is well worth a watch. I saw it at the cinema, but I'm not sure you need that - television will do fine.