{alltv} 'Nowhere Boy' is so much more than a Lennon biopic

 

He was a real nowhere boy, living in a nowhere land. But he had big plans.

The pain of his childhood informed John Lennon's music, and Nowhere Boy tells the fascinating story of his Liverpool upbringing, torn between two mother figures. Specifically, it depicts Lennon's tortured relationship with the mother who gave him up as a lad of 5 to be raised by her sister.

Nowhere Boy captures Lennon's turbulent teen years, during which he chafes at restrictions imposed by his responsible Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and reconnects after more than a decade with his emotionally unstable mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff).

Mimi took care of him but didn't fully understand his artistic yearnings. Julia encouraged him musically but couldn't take care of him. Lennon was like a ping-pong ball bounced between two emotionally polarized women.

Director Sam Taylor-Wood weaves this tale with elegance, spot-on costumes and production design, and finely tuned casting. Aaron Johnson powerfully captures Lennon's spirit, as well as his wit and defiant nature. Duff is excellent as the impulsive Julia. Scott Thomas impeccably plays the fiercely loyal Mimi.

Nowhere Boy helps us understand the underpinnings of Lennon's music as well as his idealism and life-long desire to rebel against social strictures. It is a profoundly compelling portrait of the emotional turmoil that plagued Lennon, contributed to his art and no doubt complicated his personal life.

Copyright limitations preclude the use of actual Beatles songs, but it almost doesn't matter. This is a look at Lennon before and just after his forming of the earlier Beatles incarnation, The Quarrymen. We hear the songs that influenced him, many of which were R&B tunes that Julia brought to his attention.

There's much in Lennon's music that seems haunted by an absentee mother. We feel his desire to create and sense his determination to stand out in a way that would mean something to her as they watch, mutually transfixed, as Elvis Presley wows audiences in newsreels. In his song Julia, on1968's White Album, Lennon sings, "Half of what I say is meaningless/But I say it just to reach you, Julia."

Nowhere Boy prods and pokes the ragged hole left in Lennon's life, amid the desire of both mother and son to connect, feebly trying to make up for lost years. Nowhere Boy is more than a coming-of-age tale or a Lennon biopic. It paints a complex picture of strained familial relations and a poignant look at the wounds inflicted on a sensitive soul by an unreliable parent.

Nowhere Boy
* * * 1/2 (out of four)
Stars: Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff, Thomas Brodie Sangster
Director: Sam Taylor-Wood
Distributor: The Weinstein Co.
Rating: R for language and a scene of sexuality
Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
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