Nowhere Boy, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood
© Mars Distribution
Nowhere Boy is bound to attract interest because of its subject; and hardened fans of John Lennon will of course love it. It's important to ask about a film like this, though, how interesting it would be were its central character not a famous personality. The answer, I'm afraid, is that Nowhere Boy would not be of great interest. It covers a key period of John Lennon's life, from when he was fifteen until his departure with the Beatles for Hamburg. But music is in the background. The writer Matt Greenhalgh chooses rightly to focus dramatically on Lennon's unusual family background: his being brought up by his Aunt Mimi, his rediscovery and then loss of his mother.
The story is well told, and the script is strong. Kristin Scott-Thomas, a good choice perhaps for this rather stiff role, makes Mimi human while Anne-Marie Duff is impressive as the wild, lush, unbalanced Julia. David Morrissey contributes strong support and while Aaron Johnson is unconvincing at first as Lennon, he grows on you. Lennon isn't an uncontroversially attractive character, and a certain self-absorption, selfishness even, comes across together with some charisma.
As far as Beatles history is concerned, Nowhere Boy goes through the motions somewhat. First Lennon is given a harmonica, then he's impressed by Elvis Presley in the cinema – more impressed by his effect on female fans perhaps – then we see him learn to play his first guitar (the only scene in which the Britart debut director indulges in anything overtly artsy). Here are the Quarrymen playing at the local fete; now he's introduced to Paul McCartney; and so on. That, it must be said, is formulaic and irritating. The film looks good, and so does Liverpool in it, but it's not a great work by an artist-director, an important historical piece or a major insight into Lennon the musician. In truth, it's a slight period family drama, well put together.
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