When I first heard about "Nowhere Boy" I wanted to see it, and I wasn't disappointed. I've read numerous Beatles biographies and I've sat through several cheaply made TV movies about the Beatles."Nowhere Boy" is a solid, well made Channel 4 drama that concentrates on John Lennon's early life, without sensationalising Lennon's family history or exploiting the Beatles legend. Paul and George are treated as friends that the young John encounters, who become important in his life as members of his band. There are scenes of Paul and John learning from each other and writing songs, but none are Beatles classics that make the audience swoon with recognition. It was a real pleasure for me that during the scene in which John visits the cemetery there was no tombstone marked "Eleanor Rigby" (a sequence in "Birth of the Beatles" rigged up a fake tombstone for the young John to sit on and smoke on while he talked about his future dreams with the young Paul). Stu Suttcliffe, John's great friend, isn't in this movie, and neither is Cynthia, or John's art school days. I felt that was fair enough as other movies such as BackBeat have covered John's development as a young adult.The emphasis in "Nowhere Boy" is fully on John's coming of age as a teenager in 1950s Liverpool, and exploring what it meant to be a teenager both at the time and in John's troubled family. There's a small glimpse of Strawberry Fields at the start of the film, but I felt that was justified, as it was a Salvation Army children's home next door to the house in which Lennon grew up, and it was a foreshadowing of the fate that Lennon might have encountered if not for his Aunt Mimi's willingness to take him in when he was 5 years old. During the film, Mimi reveals to him that he had a younger half sister he never met. When he asks where she is, Mimi replies, "the Salvation Army got her".
The performances by Aaron Johnson and Kristin Scott Thomas are good; Annie-Marie Duff's portrayal as the youthful but irresponsible mother is admirable. The recreation of 1950s Liverpool is also very well done: but the art direction and the set direction annoyed my husband. He pointed out that everything was clean, even in the school. No dirt or wear or tear is shown anywhere. Surely Julia's house crowded with young children, clutter, and teenaged visitors wasn't so spotless. The film also doesn't convey John's being much better off financially than his bandmates. Aunt Mimi's house (even with her need to take in a lodger) is middle class; George and Paul grew up in two up two down working class terrace houses.
Ultimately the film is let down by a descent into sentimentality towards the very end: although it steers past the Beatle clichés it can't resist an overextended scene in a sunlit garden, showing the two sisters and John happy together, perfect bliss hinting heavily at the tragedy about to strike. I was annoyed by the casting, as Thomas Sangster as Paul looks much younger than 15, and Aaron Johnson as John looks much older than 16-17. Boys grow at different development rates, but still, next to Sangster's Paul Johnson's Lennon looks like a fully grown man. The difference goes much further than suggesting Lennon was more mature than Paul (and his schoolfriends) at the time due to his experiences: it makes the audience wonder what John sees in a pipsqueak like Paul (besides his guitar playing). It would have been much more effective to have a slightly older looking actor than Sangster play Paul: George was much younger than John and Paul and he had to prove his mastery of guitar playing in order to be accepted into the band.
"Nowhere Boy" is well worth seeing, and rewarding for audiences that aren't Beatles fans. Its greatest strength is not shying away from showing the dark sides of Lennon's character, and not giving any easy answers as to how John became both a beloved icon of pop music and a man who often acted cruelly to the people closest to him.
The performances by Aaron Johnson and Kristin Scott Thomas are good; Annie-Marie Duff's portrayal as the youthful but irresponsible mother is admirable. The recreation of 1950s Liverpool is also very well done: but the art direction and the set direction annoyed my husband. He pointed out that everything was clean, even in the school. No dirt or wear or tear is shown anywhere. Surely Julia's house crowded with young children, clutter, and teenaged visitors wasn't so spotless. The film also doesn't convey John's being much better off financially than his bandmates. Aunt Mimi's house (even with her need to take in a lodger) is middle class; George and Paul grew up in two up two down working class terrace houses.
Ultimately the film is let down by a descent into sentimentality towards the very end: although it steers past the Beatle clichés it can't resist an overextended scene in a sunlit garden, showing the two sisters and John happy together, perfect bliss hinting heavily at the tragedy about to strike. I was annoyed by the casting, as Thomas Sangster as Paul looks much younger than 15, and Aaron Johnson as John looks much older than 16-17. Boys grow at different development rates, but still, next to Sangster's Paul Johnson's Lennon looks like a fully grown man. The difference goes much further than suggesting Lennon was more mature than Paul (and his schoolfriends) at the time due to his experiences: it makes the audience wonder what John sees in a pipsqueak like Paul (besides his guitar playing). It would have been much more effective to have a slightly older looking actor than Sangster play Paul: George was much younger than John and Paul and he had to prove his mastery of guitar playing in order to be accepted into the band.
"Nowhere Boy" is well worth seeing, and rewarding for audiences that aren't Beatles fans. Its greatest strength is not shying away from showing the dark sides of Lennon's character, and not giving any easy answers as to how John became both a beloved icon of pop music and a man who often acted cruelly to the people closest to him.