Second Best (film)

Second Best is a 1994 film produced by Sarah Radclyffe and directed by Chris Menges. It closely follows the 1991 novel of the same name by David Cook, who also wrote the screenplay.

Plot

Graham Holt (William Hurt) is a single man aged 42, who attempts to adopt a 10-year-old boy. Graham is a sub-postmaster in Warwickshire, England. James Lennards (Chris Cleary Miles) is a disturbed child brought up in care. Graham wants a son, but James doesn't want another father.

Graham Holt's emotional development has been smothered by his protective parents. His mother has died and he has to care for his bed-ridden father who has had a stroke.

James has been shunted from care home to foster home, causing disruption and being unable to relate to women. He only has a vague memory of his mother when he was aged 3, but has a vivid and romantic image of his father. James' father is in prison and has spun tales of him being a mercenary in the few times they've spent together on the run.

As Graham goes through the extended vetting process to be an adoptive parent, he spies James' picture in a local journal and immediately selects him as his future son. He then has to attend classes and meet regularly with social workers. Graham and James meet and the embarrassed silences demonstrate Graham's nervousness and James' manipulation of the situtaion. He knows what he has to do and how he has to behave if he is to have any chance of adoption. Graham is not sure how to behave, nor what to say. ...
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