Nowhere Boy

Upon reading other comments, this film clearly polarizes viewers. I suggest you read the comment by someone called Phantom Fan who sums up a lot of the story and emotional content quite well in my opinion. As a result I need not repeat. I am old enough to remember the Beatles in their climb to fame, but this film is not about that. The film is about John Lennon at 15. This seems to annoy some viewers. If a person reads the ads and sees the trailer: it clearly says JOHN LENNON AT 15. So whining about the film not being about John Lennon at 25 and not being about The Beatles seems as though someone did not pay attention to the film's advertising information. What we do have however is a superb production set in the mid 1950s as rock n roll grabbed teens and John Lennon (aged 15) realized some emotional hard truths about his family and himself. It just these key emotional Lennon family earthquakes that is the story of this film. Not 'How The Beatles met". The tug of love between two brittle sisters and the increasingly shocked and troubled Lennon let us glimpse the deep ruptures in his romantic psyche that saw his scorching opinions and acidic wit build. This is a great film, the art direction and set design allow the viewer to feel as though they are there in those rooms on those days. Aaron Johnson is possibly too handsome for John and is photographed to boost his genuine beauty; the photography and the direction are terrific. Interesting for Australian cinema goers is that we are fortunate to have had two award winning films previously about similar family backgrounds: CAREFUL HE MIGHT HEAR YOU from 1983 written as a memoir by Sumner Locke Elliott about his life at 6 years old being bounced between two warring aunts and an absent father is almost identical family (flashbacks) background to NOWHERE BOY. Also Eric Bana's 2008 film with Kobi Smit McPhee called ROMULUS MY FATHER is almost a flip-side between a Dad trying to save his son from an unstable mother and her lovers. So perhaps we in Oz are better more willing to applaud NOWHERE BOY on this basis. I found every part of this film compelling and thought Johnson great casting for young Lennon. The two sisters and their unraveling personal issues from their fraught past made excellent drama. I went with it all and I suggest you do too. But be prepared to let it inform you rather than you demand 'a Beatles movie'. My only niggle is the fey depiction of a 15 year old cherubic sissy styled Paul McCartney. NOWHERE BOY went somewhere for me.

I guess this would be considered an "a moment-in-the-life-of-biopic" as it focuses on only a couple of years of pre-Beatles John Lennon's life in Liverpool, England (and not his entire life). It is an interesting story and one I did not know. It asks and answers the question: Where did Lennon get his start and love for music?

The film's subject matter -- the early life of John Lennon -- made Nowhere Boy an interesting story and sell for me; and since the acting in the movie happened to be stellar -- it was a bonus. Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) does a decent job as the 15-year-old Lennon and proves to be one to watch as he's going to have a long career although the real acting "glory" of the film belongs to the two lead females who are left to battle it out as Lennon's motherly figure(s). Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient) plays his aunt who has raised John from early infant-hood as her sister was considered to be an unlikely parent/guardian. In the film, John stumbles upon his birth mother out of curiosity and becomes intrigued with her demeanor. Actress Anne-Marie Duff (Notes on a Scandal, The Last Station) is rather revelatory here (BOTH her and Scott Thomas deservingly earned 2010 BAFTA nominations for these very roles).

The story is sentimental and tragic and it is tied together quite nicely by the three lead players who all play off of each other very well and convincingly (Duff is flighty, Scott Thomas is concerned and Johnson is a free soul). The young Lennon becomes a mixture of the two women (a poetic rebel) and their influences are highly evident in the film and his later music.

Any Beatles fan should check this one out. It isn't full of Hey Jude's and Elinor Rigby's but this is Pre-Beatles (we do meet a young Paul) so we get a taste of the kid before he become our "Nowhere Boy".

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.

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

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.