Nowhere Boy Movie Review
Review by colesmithey
Not an early-life biopic of John Lennon that could have reasonably made when he was alive, due to its unflattering depiction of Lennon’s mother, “Nowhere Boy” is a soft-peddled look at the circumstances that led the ambitious lad from Liverpool to international stardom. Artist-turned-director Sam Taylor-Wood takes advantage of limitations that prevent the use of Beatles songs to delineate Lennon’s troubled relationship with his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) after she relinquished her five-year-old son to the care of her sister Mimi (well played by Kristin Scott Thomas) and Mimi’s gregarious husband George (David Threlfall). George’s untimely death leaves a hole in the teenaged Lennon’s life that he proceeds to fill with girls and rockabilly music that he steals from local record shops.
Review by spiritualityandpractice
It’s 1955 in Liverpool. John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) is a 15-year-old living with his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Uncle George (David Threlfall), who have been his surrogate parents since he was five. He is especially close to his uncle, a very playful man. When George unexpectedly dies, John’s strict and unemotional aunt tells the boy that now it’s just the two of them, and she orders him to his bedroom if he’s going to cry anymore. That’s just how she is and he knows that she’ll never change. Aunt Mimi expects John to do well in school but he’d much rather be drawing or doodling. Her call to responsibility doesn’t register at all with this rebellious youth who is still searching for his passion.
Imagine John’s excitement when he learns that his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) lives nearby with her three young children and common-law husband. Their reunion is a happy one, and John begins seeing his mother regularly. Julia teaches him how to play the banjo and when he picks up a tape of an African-American singer, Julia is the one he plays it for; they listen together.
Review by threemoviebuffs
If John Lennon were still alive he would be turning 70 on October 9th, 2010 (Nowhere Boy has its US release on October 8th). It’s difficult to imagine certain celebrities who died before their time as older people. Can you imagine Marilyn Monroe as a 70 year old woman? Or James Dean as a wrinkled old man? Somehow though, I have no trouble at all picturing Lennon as an old man; a relic of the hippy movement still shouldering on, only now he’d probably be having a bed-in about global warming or writing protest songs about Bush and still being as cheekily out there as he ever was.
This impending birthday of his seems to have sparked a renewed interest in his life, as within the past year there have been two biopics made about him. There was the BBC’s poorly received Lennon Naked starring former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston as Lennon, and also this one, Nowhere Boy, about Lennon’s formative years starring Aaron Johnson of Kick-Ass fame.
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