3 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:
From Out Of Nowhere
Sabathius from ,
5th February, 2010
Former Beatle John Lennon continues to hold endless fascination for biographers, documentary-makers and the general public at large. However, until director Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy, such consideration in film has tended to focus on his Beatles years rather than the unusual circumstances of his upbringing. By covering his adolescence, she smartly avoids the typical music biopic pitfall of trying to capture an emerging talent in a single dramatic scene - usually shown as the artist sitting with an instrument on a quiet summery day while picking/blowing/tinkering with strings/keys/valves. Taylor-Wood present us with Lennon (Aaron Johnson) before he was famous, before he was good, even. And by doing so she is able to concentrate on exploring the emerging man and the emotional confusion caused by the fact he was raised by his aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) while his real mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), lived only a few streets away. Here, the characteristics of the two sisters are greatly polarised, a decision that achieves acute emotional turmoil in John and any scene where the two sisters clash. Sadly, the effect comes across as a little convenient, as if guiding the audience's reaction. As she has done so effortlessly before, Kristin Scott Thomas is faultless in this sort of role. Mimi is the most interesting character on display, her fierce caring side hidden below a veneer of English reserve. As the character exposed to the most grief throughout the film, she is a centre for sadness but never pity. As time progresses following the death of her husband, she begins to re-emerge, partly through John's activities. The journey is marked in an interesting progression of colour in her outfits, from black to grey and, finally, pink. Although not new on the scene, Aaron Johnson has taken a step up in responsibility with Nowhere Boy and he looks the part. He carries a cheeky charisma one would expect of future rockstar but has the emotional strength to deliver the harrowing scenes as Lennon is forced to referee between his mother and aunt. In her debut feature, Taylor-Wood has produced an interesting if not spectacular piece of work. For a film by a Turner Prize-nominated artist, it is oddly unstylised. While the musical interludes are wisely underplayed and the B-word is never mentioned, the lasting memory of the film is of the performances rather than the story.
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