Movie Review: 'Second Best' (1994)

A middle-aged postmaster (William Hurt) in a small Welsh village, whose early experiences have constricted his adult life, adopts an 11-year-old boy (Chris Cleary Miles) whose father is in jail and whose own psychological health has been wrecked at a tiny age. Hurt (why is he in the middle of a Welsh village?), in an odd reddish coif and bachelor-geek eyeglasses, turns in a studiously sensitive performance thick with Acting Technique. Miles, on the other hand, with no previous acting experience, is a natural. B-