Nowhere Boy

I knew very little about Lennon – a Beatle, shot dead at age 40, all round musical god to millions – before seeing Nowhere Boy. I know more about him now, but not as much as I'd hope. Matt Greenleigh's screenplay, based on Julia Baird's (Lennon's sister) memoirs, covers only a small period of the rocker's life, more specifically between the ages of 16 and 20. These were the years when Lennon met his real mother and learnt the truth about how he ended up living with his Aunt Mimi. Oh, and he also met Paul McCartney and George Harrison. However the film strongly focuses on his familial issues and leaves the formation of his band as a sidenote, which is a real shame because as an ignorant fan it would have been great to learn more about the Lennon / McCartney dynamic and how The Quarrymen-cum-Beatles grabbed the world's attention.

In her sophomore effort as director, Sam Taylor Wood brings a nice artistic edge to the proceedings although her picture isn't always as compelling as it should be. There are a handful of powerful scenes that'll get the heart pumping though; a tense, all-cards-on-the-table discussion between Lennon, Julia and Mimi is Nowhere Boy at its best. With the assistance of DP Seamus McGarvey, she manages to capture the mood and gloom of 50's London extremely well, the chilly weather a perfect excuse for kids everywhere to dress like Elvis.

Perhaps most importantly, Wood has extracted a fine performance from the 19 year old Johnson; his brash, confused Lennon is never less than convincing. Always reliable, and almost stealing the show, is Kristin Scott Thomas as the stern but devoted Aunt Mimi. She gives Mimi so much depth and unsaid emotion, it is tour de force to witness. Not quite as engaging is Thomas Sangster as McCartney and Anne-Marie Duff as Lennon's completely bizarre mother Julia.

A small, but interesting insight into the musical genius that was John Winston Lennon.

3.5 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)

It was very interesting to see a biopic focusing on icon John Lennon's early life, or shall we say teenage years, rather than his climb to fame with The Beatles. While not one of the best biopics out there, 'Nowhere Boy' luckily is the opposite of the film's title.

'Nowhere Boy' has its flaws. The exposition in the final act is rather clunky, and some of the drama gets over-sentimental and melodramatic, also somewhat over-heated. While Sam Taylor-Wood doesn't do a bad job directing there is a little too much of a measured approach when it could have been tighter. That it is very inaccurate wasn't as big a problem for me, biopics are not exactly known for their accuracy and many have done far worse jobs.

However, the period is very evocatively rendered and done justice by photography that has style and grit. The music is great.

There are some thoughtful moments in the script, and there is a nice balance of moments of poignant drama and pop history. The story is often engrossing and is pretty illuminating, not really making the mistake of saying little new that we don't know already.

Aaron Johnson is highly credible as Lennon and more than holds his own against the more experienced actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff. Scott Thomas in particular is marvellous and Duff is a fine contrast.

Overall, pretty good and interesting. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Period drama has long been a forte of the British cinema; prior to this one there had already been at least three excellent examples from 2009; "Young Victoria", "Dorian Grey" and "An Education". Traditional British costume drama has concentrated on the Victorian era and early twentieth century (roughly speaking 1837-1945), but Nowhere Boy, like "An Education", is set at a rather later period, in this case the late fifties.

The film is about the adolescence of John Lennon, while he was at school and art college in Liverpool. Unlike his three fellow Beatles, who were all from working-class backgrounds, Lennon grew up in middle-class suburbia with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, who had raised him since he was five. He was the son of Mimi's younger sister Julia by her husband Alf Lennon (referred to in the film as "Fred"), but the marriage was not a success, and after Julia began a relationship with another man, Mimi took care of the youngster, then five years old. Julia did not reappear in Lennon's life until his teenage years when a cousin informed him that, contrary to what he had previously thought, she was still living in Liverpool, only a short walk from his home.

The film focuses on the influence these two very different women had on Lennon's early life. Although they were sisters, they had wildly contrasting personalities. Julia was a bohemian extrovert, liberal in her social views and keen to foster her son's musical and artistic talents. Mimi (actually christened Mary Elizabeth) may have shared a nickname with the heroine of "La Boheme", but there was nothing bohemian about her. She was a strict disciplinarian who initially had little sympathy with John's musical aspirations and insisted that he get a "proper job", although eventually she gave in and agreed to buy him a guitar.

The film also charts Lennon's musical development, including his first meetings with Paul McCartney and George Harrison (Ringo, of course, did not come onto the scene until a few years later) and the birth of The Quarrymen, the band which was later to become The Beatles. There is a vivid picture of the British music scene in the late fifties, a time when trad jazz and rock-and-roll seemed to be competing to become the music of the future. There was also a curious British musical form, skiffle (actually a revival of an earlier American variety of jazz) which was influential at the time; The Quarrymen started out as a skiffle band.

The film also captures the look of the period; although the late fifties were a time of increasing material prosperity, there was much about British life which had a drab feel about it, especially the clothes and the interior decoration schemes. There is a contrast brought out between Mimi's house, decorated in various shades of brown and cream, and the brighter colours of Julia's which look forward to the more garish tastes that were to predominate in the sixties. (I remember growing up in a house where the living-room combined dark green wallpaper with a bright orange carpet- hideous today, but unexceptional at the time).

It was not so long ago that Kristin Scott Thomas was playing romantic heroines in films like "The English Patient"; today, casting directors seem to see her as a middle-aged battleaxe in roles like Veronica Whittaker in "Easy Virtue". Aunt Mimi at first seems like the bourgeois equivalent of the aristocratic Veronica, although she later shows that there is a gentler, more caring, side to her nature. (If Veronica Whittaker ever had a gentler side she kept it well-hidden, even from herself). Scott Thomas is even better here than she was in "Easy Virtue", because the role she is playing is more complex. Anne-Marie Duff is also very good as Julia and Aaron Johnson as Lennon seems like a young star in the making. Johnson is perhaps rather more handsome than Lennon was in real life, but he is able to convey a real sense of what he must have been like, in part a rebellious tearaway whose idea of fun is going for a ride on the roof of a bus, part emotionally vulnerable youngster torn between loyalty to his carefree, fun-loving mother and to his aunt, the woman who had cared for him since he was very young. The title "Nowhere Boy" is not just a play on the title of one of Lennon's best-known songs; it is also indicative of John's state of mind as he tries to reconcile these two influences on his life. Like his "Nowhere Man", he "Knows not where he's going to".

The film's main appeal will probably be to those with an interest in The Beatles, although in my view it can also be seen as a moving coming-of-age drama which can be enjoyed by those who can't tell Lennon and McCartney from Rodgers and Hammerstein or from Gilbert and Sullivan. It contains not only some great music but also some great acting. This was director Sam Taylor-Wood's first feature film but it is a debut of which she (that's Sam as in Samantha, not as in Samuel) can be proud. 8/10

NOWHERE BOY – CATCH IT ( A ) Based upon the early life of Mr. John Lennon, this movie is truly wonderful… best thing about the movie is it's more of a British family drama then changed into totally music extravaganza… AarOn Johnson is undoubtedly the Best young Actor around … His portrayal of john Lennon' s is just incredible…from sweetness, to witness and cockiness… he grapes perfectly on all parts of John Lennon's behavior. Other incredible performance in the movie is by Anne-Marie Duff... She is outstanding, she is so good that I actually forgot that I m watching a movie and she is playing her role... You just want to see her previous work that good she is in this movie...Kristin Scott Thomas gave another great performance... All these three actors make the movie believable and if John Lennon would have been alive today... must be proud of them... In the end 1st time Director Sam Taylor-Wood did an excellent job with the story and movie. I still think about the movie and want to watch all over again.

This biopic of John Lennon, taking his story from his schooldays in Liverpool up until the departure of the nascent Beatles for Hamburg, is an exceptional movie, quite the best I have seen during 2009. The story is beautifully handled from beginning to end and the acting from the three main leads is superb. Aaron Johnson manages to portray Lennon's mixture of cockiness (in more ways than one!), aggression, painful vulnerability, bewilderment and sheer adolescent verve with great sureness of touch. We watch Lennon developing from school-kid into knowing young man, and we literally see a different face at the end of the movie to the one we did at the start. Superb playing by Johnson, brilliantly assisted by that of Kristin Scott Thomas as his Aunt Mimi and Anne-Marie Duff as his mother, Julia. It would have been all too easy to lapse into cliché with this story but this is largely avoided. We get glimpses of Liverpool - an opening on the steps of St George's Hall, a fleeting glimpse of Strawberry Fields, a shot of a ferry on the Mersey - but these glimpses are all we need. And the movie closes not with a rendition of an all too predictable 'Nowhere Man' but a beautifully performed 'In Spite of All the Danger'. They say it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock n' roll; in Nowhere Boy we can see where it, and we, all began.