David O'ConnellNowhere Boy
December 15th 2009 04:46
Director Sam Taylor-Wood saw a parallel between her early life and that of John Lennon. It proved enough of an attraction to lure her to Nowhere Boy, a project that puts a commercial spin on a narrow window into Lennon’s mid-teens in post-war Liverpool. Though entertaining, it’s instantly forgettable however, serving as neither a complex psychological study nor an illuminating insight into the creative process.
Lennon is played by the magnetic Aaron Johnson who enlivens his portrayal with a raging, rebellious streak and excessive physicality; almost as if to immediately distance this take on Lennon from the broad public perception of a sensitive, introverted young artist who grew into his own skin over time.
Following the death of his much loved uncle George (David Threlfall), Lennon’s relationship with two women are counterbalanced: first, his matronly aunt, Mimi Smith (Kristin Scott Thomas) whose withering demeanor and disciplinarian rule keep him in check. Then there’s his birth mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), an intense, slightly loopy woman with a young family of her own who, unbeknownst to John, has lived just a few blocks away all his life.
A friend helps track Julia down after her mysterious appearance at Uncle George’s funeral, and a friendship that will ignite John’s fascination with rock music hesitantly begins. Soon inspired to create as both a means of personal expression and act of rebellion against his aunt, he takes the inevitable first steps on the walkway to fame.
You can’t help feeling that the film’s casting is a major misstep. Odd in a brazen, half-ludicrous, half-interesting way, the choice of Thomas Sangster as Paul McCartney undermines its credibility. Johnson on the other hand, though compelling and stocked with ample shadings to override the film’s pop psychology tendencies, feels like a bloated representation of what Lennon might have been in an alternate world, rather than a stringently adhered to facsimile. The comparative strengths of Duff as the emotionally fragile Julia, and Scott Thomas as the devoutly schoolmarm-ish Mimi, help ground the film; though polar opposites they’re reasonably believable as sisters too.
Johnson certainly gets a chance to show some range, unleashing a slew of tortured reactions to personal tragedy and skeletons toppling out of cupboards. One particularly dubious flashback to when John was five relates the circumstances under which Julia surrendered her motherly responsibilities only to see her saintly sister swoop in to assume responsibility. A major sticking point for me was Lennon's lack of sympathetic qualities. Full of himself once he spied fame and found an outlet away from his troubled home life without Uncle George, his bluster and cockiness is only excused by sardonic wit and charisma for so long.
Ultimately, Nowhere Boy feels tainted by a kind of anonymity; though its approach to history may come across as fresh for the sake of crowd-pleasing, its forgoing of any meticulous personification of these larger-than-life figures sees it straying beyond mere creative license. With the film fading out prior to their impending international acclaim, and no mention of the word ‘Beatles’, these could be any budding musicians named ‘John’ and ‘Paul’, rather than the most famous pop artists of their time.
The trailer is here.
NOWHERE BOY opens nationally on December 26.
Lennon is played by the magnetic Aaron Johnson who enlivens his portrayal with a raging, rebellious streak and excessive physicality; almost as if to immediately distance this take on Lennon from the broad public perception of a sensitive, introverted young artist who grew into his own skin over time.
Following the death of his much loved uncle George (David Threlfall), Lennon’s relationship with two women are counterbalanced: first, his matronly aunt, Mimi Smith (Kristin Scott Thomas) whose withering demeanor and disciplinarian rule keep him in check. Then there’s his birth mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), an intense, slightly loopy woman with a young family of her own who, unbeknownst to John, has lived just a few blocks away all his life.
Aaron Johnson as John Lennon
A friend helps track Julia down after her mysterious appearance at Uncle George’s funeral, and a friendship that will ignite John’s fascination with rock music hesitantly begins. Soon inspired to create as both a means of personal expression and act of rebellion against his aunt, he takes the inevitable first steps on the walkway to fame.
You can’t help feeling that the film’s casting is a major misstep. Odd in a brazen, half-ludicrous, half-interesting way, the choice of Thomas Sangster as Paul McCartney undermines its credibility. Johnson on the other hand, though compelling and stocked with ample shadings to override the film’s pop psychology tendencies, feels like a bloated representation of what Lennon might have been in an alternate world, rather than a stringently adhered to facsimile. The comparative strengths of Duff as the emotionally fragile Julia, and Scott Thomas as the devoutly schoolmarm-ish Mimi, help ground the film; though polar opposites they’re reasonably believable as sisters too.
Julia Lennon (Anne-Marie Duff) and Mimi Smith (Kristin Scott Thomas)
Johnson certainly gets a chance to show some range, unleashing a slew of tortured reactions to personal tragedy and skeletons toppling out of cupboards. One particularly dubious flashback to when John was five relates the circumstances under which Julia surrendered her motherly responsibilities only to see her saintly sister swoop in to assume responsibility. A major sticking point for me was Lennon's lack of sympathetic qualities. Full of himself once he spied fame and found an outlet away from his troubled home life without Uncle George, his bluster and cockiness is only excused by sardonic wit and charisma for so long.
Ultimately, Nowhere Boy feels tainted by a kind of anonymity; though its approach to history may come across as fresh for the sake of crowd-pleasing, its forgoing of any meticulous personification of these larger-than-life figures sees it straying beyond mere creative license. With the film fading out prior to their impending international acclaim, and no mention of the word ‘Beatles’, these could be any budding musicians named ‘John’ and ‘Paul’, rather than the most famous pop artists of their time.
The trailer is here.
NOWHERE BOY opens nationally on December 26.
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Comment by Mr Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory
So much more could've been done in my humble opinion to make this so much more entertaining and insightful.
It's a pity.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic