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Film Review: Nowhere Boy (2008) Not about the band ..

Nowhere Boy (2008) is about the early life of John Lennon a boy caught between an emotional pincer movement of his mother and aunt.  The film is an emotional roller coaster as Lennon oscillates between his free spirited aunt played by Ann Maria Duff who is to become an influence on his future musical development.   The film is about hints rather than spelling it out his aunt’s depression is alluded to as here ‘sad times’.  The interaction between Lennon and his aunt has a frisson of sexual allure without being at all exploitative.  Lennon sees in her a kind of liberation and free spirit which he would follow in later years. Her absence and re-introduction into Lennon’s early life intrigue.  

Their early dalliances feel in this film less like mother and son bonding but a kind of Summer of Love.  Their is no hint of smuttiness.  The screenplay for the most part plays it relatively safe but Matt Greenhalg but in keeping with the films soap like quality does have subtle hints thrown in that intrigue.  

Opposite but nonetheless just as interesting is Mimi played wonderfully by Kristen Scott Thomas.  At first she is the polar opposite of her sister (Lennon’s mother), buttoned up, classical and always concerned that John should wear his glasses.  However the best film characters are holding something back not just emotionally but secrets too.

As these two characters, mother and aunt like weather fronts they collide and unleash the secrets of Lennon’s real father and how his aunt Mimi came to be looking after him.  Scott Thomas is superb in this role and she has to undo the wiff of the emotionally distant and strict step mother aura that surrounds her in early scenes.  

In some ways Lennon’s mother and aunt are two sides of Lennons character; one the free wheeling rock and roller and the other a desire to be an artist in tradition of the classical composers Mimi his aunt most admires.   A back story is played out showing how Lennon with a force of personality , anger and occasional resort to violent put together his first band ‘The Quarrymen’. Aaron Johnson is pretty decent as Lennon but remains  small between the performances of Scott Thomas (Mimi) and Ann Maria Duff (mother) This strand of the film is un-remarkable but interesting and will come as a disappointment to those seeking a richer depiction of how the Beatles come together.  The first meeting of Lennon and McCartney would be safe to say lacks the tension of say DeNiro and Pacino in Mann’s film ‘Heat’.  

This is an assured feature film debut from Sam Taylor - Wood.  An easy if perhaps un-commercial route would have been for her to direct an abstract bio pic of Lennon’s early life.  However playing it relatively straight and putting characters at the centre is no less justice to telling the early life of Lennon in film.  The film does not completely eschew arty sequences, waves dominate some scenes.  Lennon, aunt and mother combine quite well to register 8.5. on the emotional Richter scale.

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