I was listening to John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band LP yesterday after watching Sam Taylor Wood’s impressive directorial debut about the teenage years of the most discussed and arguably most loved of the fab four. The always painful opener “Mother” somehow sounded deeper and even more sad. The hopeless wailing, angry vocal about his only parent makes for a small window into the relationship that almost passed both of them by. The album and Lennon’s story grows even more potent because of Wood’s film and in focusing on an aspect of an icon’s life that has never really been explored on the big screen she has created a unique and surprisingly concise drama.
Raised by his tight lipped Aunt Mimi (an equally tight lipped Kristen Scott Thomas), Lennon (a most non Lennon looking Aaron Johnson) was only introduced to his mother Julia (a youthful Anne-Marie Duff) at the age of 16 and the bulk of the film sits between these two relationships. We watch a battle of loyalty within Lennon between his new found free spirited rock and roll loving mother his stoic but honest guardian become a force in eventually driving him to music.
Wood’s film is surprisingly and thankfully straight laced. Avoiding any of the pitfalls of making the leap from artist to director she has made a serious and affecting mainstream film. Through Control writer Matt Greenhalgh’s script comes a film which memorably paints a 50’s England without making it look too depressing and drab, such is the way with most films of that time and place. Though not exactly bursting with colour the there is a sense of fun present in Nowhere Boy and something freewheeling about Taylor-Wood’s direction that comes from a different place than that of her overtly postured photographs.
The performances (most notably Scott Thomas) are solid and though, bearing pretty much zero resemblance to Lennon, Johnson makes up for it with a bucket load of swagger and cheek. He’s a confused character, quick witted but brash and stupid at times, sometimes likable but often not. Thomas as Mimi is by far the stiffest character but her timing and presence is brilliant and she’s dishes out a surprising share of chuckles. Anne Marie Duff’s portrayal of Julia is sometimes too sugary but its balanced well with her slightly incestuous dark side and the ability to make her young son and most of the audience feel quite uncomfortable. The relationship between McCartney and Lennon (and later Harrison) is also looked at a little closer with Macca as the young and sensible imp trying his best to control his boisterous friend.
The film, book-ended by funerals and concluding with Beatles heading to Hamburg, is admittedly a bit of a bumpy ride but it chugs along and, although becoming an bit of an onscreen tear fest in the last 30 minutes, it somehow remains a feel good film and certainly isn’t bogged down by it.
It’s also a film in which, although important, the music which the band would go on to make is kept secondary, even shying away from mentioning the B Word or (from memory) even uttering McCartney’s last name. Somehow its the exclusion of these details and the focus on the two mother figures which makes Nowhere Boy a film of it’s own instead of being one which could have inadvertently seemed to be just about the Beatles.
Although not as taught or affecting as Control, Nowhere Boy is another success for Greenhalgh and shows the steady hand of Sam Taylor Wood on her first feature outing.
