Dir: Tony Barbieri. US. 2000. 109 mins.

Prod cos: Lumiere International. Worldwide sales: Lumiere Films (+1 323 650 6773), UGC International (+33 1 40 29 89 00). Exec prods: Claude Leger, Luciano Lisi, Wendy Cary, Mickey Cottrell. Prod: Lila Cazes. Scr: Tony Barbieri. DoP: Matthew Irving. Prod des: Victor R Syperek. Ed: Jeffrey Stephens. Mus: Harry Gregson-Williams. Main cast: Robert Forster, Nastassja Kinski, Cody Morgan, Jason Cairns.

Tony Barbieri's follow-up to his excellent first feature One is a sensitive but dreary drama about a child living with his mentally unstable mother. Well-acted and thoughtfully directed by the talented Barbieri, it's a film whose parts are better than its conventional material. While theatrical potential is limited, it will ultimately play well as a TV movie-of-the-week, especially with its sugary musical score from prolific composer Harry Gregson-Williams.

Cody Morgan plays a small boy living with his waitress mother (Kinski) and her latest boyfriend (Cairns). An imaginative child, he escapes the more sordid aspects of his household - constant fighting, physical abuse, his mother's alcoholism - through daydreams involving the fabricated king of Italy, Marciano Beneditti.

When Cairns moves out, life gets better for the boy and he strikes up a friendship with a retired therapist (Forster) who is repairing his sailboat at the local marina, but things take a dark turn when Cairns moves back in and Kinski's condition starts deteriorating.

Kinski has rarely been better in a challenging role as the protective but hopelessly messed-up mother; Forster is solid, as always, and Morgan touching as the boy. The film world premiered at the Los Angeles International Film Festival last weekend.