ON THE SILVER SCREEN: "NOWHERE BOY" COMES TOGETHER IN PORTRAYAL OF TEENAGE JOHN LENNON

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By Brian Lafferty

 

October 17, 2010 (San Diego)--Nowhere Boy doesn’t offer anything revelatory about John Lennon but that doesn’t matter. It is easy to go into this movie expecting something extraordinary. But if the film were to take such an approach, it would have been wrong. We know Lennon is a legend but that began as a member of The Beatles. The filmmakers could have made a film about his time with the Fab Four or his relationship with Yoko Ono. But writer Matt Greenhalgh and director Sam Taylor-Wood elect to explore a time in this man’s life that hasn’t really been touched on: his teenage years.

 

The movie opens with the death of Lennon’s (Aaron Johnson) uncle. After the funeral he meets a woman who turns out to be his long-lost mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff). Unlike his staid Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott-Thomas), who raised him, Julia is free-spirited. (After his Uncle dies, Mimi tells him to stop crying. “Let’s get on with it, shall we?” she says without feeling.) Julia gets him interested in rock and roll music and Lennon decides to start a band. He also meets a young Paul McCartney (Thomas Sangster) along the way.

 

Again, nothing original or revelatory but the acting, writing and characters make the movie work. Johnson is so good as Lennon that a lot of the time I actually felt like I was seeing the future legend. He has the accent, the looks, the mannerisms, and the dialogue all down. I loved seeing him interact with his mother, who has a lot of energy. She constantly emits good vibes, providing the love that his Aunt Mimi didn’t offer.

 

The relationship between Lennon and Mimi is unpredictable. Sometimes things are stable but it can often change in an instant. On his birthday, for example, Julia throws him a party. He comes home to Mimi, who gives him a cake and a guitar. Everything seems amiable until Mimi smells alcohol on his breath and Julia arrives. The rest of the scene plays like a snowball effect. There are arguments that get increasingly intense and then it only gets worse when Lennon learns the truth about his father. The emotion and intensity ramp up with each line of dialogue and culminate into a painful catharsis for all the characters.

 

The film is peppered with little references to future Beatles songs. These are not apparent if you simply stare at the screen. You have to really look and listen. From signs, to dialogue to drawings, they are a nice visual treat without being gimmicks. They are not obvious but they work on an important level. Although Lennon doesn’t realize it at the time, these little things will inspire him. Sometimes we see and hear things and don’t give them much thought. But years later we’ll remember them as we write college papers, draw pictures, or do other creative things.

 

The title is an apt description of the film. The movie is about finding direction in one’s life. The first half meanders, intercutting between several story threads. There’s his introduction to rock and roll, his brief experimentation with sex, his mother showing him how to live. All of these seemingly random events add up. There isn’t a lot of structure during this time but then in life there is no Act One, Act Two or Act Three. You never know where life will take you.

 

This is not the type of movie that you can just look at. To appreciate it, you have to watch intently. It requires a lot of thought but this wasn’t asking too much from me. This requisition of my utmost attention really paid off. It may look ordinary and standard but a great movie exists underneath if you look hard enough.

 

 

 


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