Cinema Nova, 10/02/2010
Status: Behind and getting behinder
Daringly, dashingly, fool-hardily undertaking to see 120 movies in the cinema in a calendar year means seeing 2.3 movies a week. That sounded okay to me for much of January. Then February came along and I realised that for each week I don’t see 2.3 movies (like, say last week), I have to see 4.6 the following one. But when I couldn’t get to any at all last week, how the criminy am I supposed to get to 4.6 this week? And do they even show point 6 of movies anyway? (I think Valentine’s Day only counts as point 4.) You see my dilemma.
My first movie in nine days was Nowhere Boy. This review will be next to useless as I caught the last session of the film in the state. Possibly the country. Shouldn’t stop you from getting it on DVD, though, what?
Nowhere Boy is the story of a teenage John Lennon (played by AARON JOHNSON), how he falls in love with rock and roll, learns guitar and meets Paul and George. Except, it’s not really a story about that at all. It’s really the story of two women - one is John’s biological mother (ANNE MARIE DUFF, Shameless) and the other is the aunt who raised him (the ever-awesome KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS, I’ve Loved You So Long).
Oddly, much of the movie is not even remotely about John’s journey towards the Beatles. Even more oddly, this is exactly why it is a successful biopic. The story is self-contained, interesting, and not a common one. Refreshingly, there are no smug “I’m in the presence of genius” moments of premonition, it’s just a kid trying to figure out his place in the world.
Director Sam Taylor-Wood (an extraordinary visual artist) has a wonderful eye for framing and period detail which gives the film lovely depth and texture. She delivers an interesting, but ultimately uneven film. Excellent performances and a promising first half (especially the opening three seconds) are let down by a drawn out confrontation scene and hollow-feeling resolution as the film descends down the gurgler of kitchen sink drama.
