NOWHERE BOY

“NOWHERE BOY” (Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas & Anne-Marie Duff)

Confession time. When I was growing up my two best friends were my dog Laddie & someone I had never met in my life. Weird kid, right? My other best friend was John Lennon. I knew quite a bit about John’s life & he knew nothing of mine. So he wasn’t the greatest friend in the world, but I still admired the guy – Even when he started acting goofy during his peace protests with his even stranger Japanese wife, I was in simpatico with the message he was sending out – War Sucks, Give Peace A Chance.

I know his story from interviews and genuine autobiographies. Not after-the-fact tabloids written by someone just trying to make a buck off of his name.
I have always said, no matter how old I’m getting to be, I’m grateful to have been born in 1955 since I was alive when The Beatles came to America (I was 8) I was able to witness the phenomenon, & quite frankly was confused by it – Yes, the music was different, but I never understood the ‘mania’; I never attended a Beatles concert because I wanted to hear the music, not a din of maniacal screaming girls.
So I bought the records. The first song I bought was “A Hard Day’s Night”, the first album I bought was “Revolver” & the first book I bought was the Authorized Biography of The Beatles by Hunter Davies which came out in 1968 when they were still together. It delved deeply into each member’s childhood, especially John’s. Reading it, I saw similarities between John’s childhood and mine. He was my favorite Beatle because I liked his songs the most & obviously ‘something’ about him came across the airwaves that I connected with – after viewing this film I realize now what it was – sarcasm.
One of those things that can’t be taught – you either have it or you don’t. Something unusual that John & I shared. Maybe that’s why I made him my ‘real, yet still invisible’ best friend.
I tell you all of this to help you understand why I was reluctant to see this movie. I thought for sure they would get it wrong – they would ‘make up’ crap that didn’t happen to sensationalize the story when, if they did it proper, it would be a powerful ‘family’ drama and an insight into what made John Lennon an icon. I’m here to tell you that they did this story proper – as uneasy as it was to watch at times, it is a great film – and remember I’m speaking as a disciple of Johnny & The Moondogs & The Quarrymen. I would be very interested in hearing what you youngsters think of this movie – I hope you’re able to catch it because I’d like to know if it hits any of you like I think it might – It is simply a heartbreaking story of a young man who is made to feel ‘unwanted’ by his own family. Even if you can’t relate to that, I think you’ll feel empathy for the lad. My wife is not a Beatles fan so I went to ‘Nowhere Boy’ alone. I wish she would have come with me because I think she would have related to his childhood as well & would appreciate his music more because of it. She’ll see it eventually, but it would have been nice to share the first viewing together. & we would have had the theatre all to ourselves as I was the lone audience member. On the plus side, it was as if I was getting to know my old buddy all over again; Just me & John. Pete & Ivan. & those two little guitar playing twerps, Paul & George.
I’ll start with the negatives & get the nit-picking out of the way. It bothered me right off the bat that Aaron Johnson (Lennon) had blue eyes – that should have automatically dismissed him from the role, but the rest of the 1950’s Lennon-look he had down pat, so I was able to put that annoyance behind me. They sugar-coated his temper - Which made sense because you do need your lead character to be likable; hence they heavily leaned on John’s sarcastic side. For some reason they renamed John’s father ‘Alf’ (It was Fred) For most of the film I thought they made John’s Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) too mean – To make John look better, I thought, & I didn’t like that angle. But in the end you understand why Mimi acts the way she does – when the flashback to when John was 5 & his parents made him choose between them is shown, Mimi becomes the heroine. & if that scene doesn’t bring moisture to your eyes, then I don’t think anything can. I knew it was coming, of course, but I realized as I watched these actors playing it out in front of me that I’d only pictured it in my mind – it packs a powerful emotional impact when you see it ‘for real’ on the big screen. And it stirred flashbacks from my own childhood, just to let you know why it got to me.
Sounds like I’m through nit-picking since I’m singing its praises now, so here’s what I loved about ‘Nowhere Boy’... Oops, one more complaint – I hate that title, basically because John dismissed ‘Nowhere Man’ as ‘crap’ & a much better title would have been ‘In My Life’. Also, the omission of eventual first-wife, Cynthia Powell, was a bit of a mystery, but then again to add her into the later stages would have been overkill, so I don’t have a problem with it, just a little curious as to why she was left out. It was refreshing to see something about John that didn’t have Yoko’s greedy handprints all over it!
What I loved most was Anne-Marie Duff as John’s mother, Julia. An incredible performance of a difficult role – Julia was an enigma; a ‘hot mess’ (as they would say today) of a mother, but a woman who outwardly seemed to have a fervent love for life &, when John comes back into her life in his teens, a rather uncomfortable feeling for her son – to call it borderline ‘lust’ isn’t stretching the truth at all (She calls him her ‘dreamboat’) In a year where Supporting Actress roles are even slimmer than usual, I’m declaring Ms. Duff MY winner in this category.
The name ‘The Beatles’ is never mentioned; this story takes place during The Quarrymen years – John’s meetings with Paul & George are displayed accurately & I appreciated that. The fact that they have him giving jealous, almost scornful looks toward Paul & George as they play onstage were exaggerated, but since they toned down his temper it was an appropriate addition to help capture the ‘essence’ of John.
Kristin Scott Thomas deserves recognition as well, but her role was much easier to portray since Mimi is pretty much a cold fish throughout the film, but she is superb at relaying the fact that she seems to hate the fact that she has to be that way in order for John to have a ‘proper’ upbringing – You realize after the film that if it wasn’t for Aunt Mimi, John may have never formed a band & that would have left me without a make believe, yet human best friend during my childhood.
I don’t know if this was filmed in sequence, but it seemed as though Aaron Johnson ‘became’ John Lennon as the story progressed. I liked the little nuanced clips relating to The Beatles; John rides his bike past the orphanage ‘Strawberry Field’, under-aged John tries to sneak past the bouncer at The Cavern Club and is told to ‘beat it’; on a couple of occasions they have Johnson ‘pose’ in ways familiar to those of us who were members of the fan club & had seen the pictures they were recreating (& when far enough away to not tell that his eyes were blue, looking eerily like the real thing)
With all the junk that’s been written about John since his murder I never thought a film like this could be made, but thank you, Sam Taylor-Wood for the fairly accurate depiction of the fifteen year old in Liverpool who would eventually go on to change the world by asking if he could ‘hold our hand’ and made ‘goo goo ga-joob' sound like a phrase that actually meant something...