James Scott won an Oscar in 1982 for his short film A Shocking Accident, in which a young lad is informed of his father's unexpected death. This picture tells another story, but one that is hauntingly similar: it is Scott's biography of his father, the painter William Scott, whose own father was killed in a fire when the boy was 14. The expertly crafted period piece dates back to the end of World War I--when William's father returns home unexpectedly from the wars to a dubious reception--and chronicles a childhood of poverty and tragedy. James Scott's background in experimental filmmaking is evident in the film's meticulous design, which uses the senior Scott's paintings to illuminate the effect of events of his youth on his later work. Aided by fine performances by Alex Norton as William's Irish father and Phyllis Logan as his Scottish mother, Scott creates a loving tribute that spans three generations: a film about a lad who becomes a man--and an artist--and then learns to cherish his parents, it is also clearly a film about a legacy, handed down from one artist to another.