I've been so busy lately that I haven't had a lot of time to keep up with my blog. I love writing here so I'll always be posting even though it won't be as regularly as I would like. Lately I have seen a few movies so I'll try to start updating my blog with my thoughts on them.
I'll start with the film Nowhere Boy.
Before John Lennon was John Lennon he was a teenager bursting with attitude who didn't know where to place his energy or how to channel his untapped talent. Raised by his aunt and his uncle in a straight and rather strict household the boy, who was part of the music group which would later change and influence music for generations, seems like a typical moody teenager. His need to rebel is fulfilled when he reconnects with his mother. It is through his relationship with her that his talents are awakened and the star John Lennon is born.
Similarly to John Lennon's transformation, the film Nowhere Boy seems to dazzle most in the scenes where John and his mentally unstable mother connect. As his mother introduces him to rock n' roll music, smothers him with affection and strums out a song for him on the guitar John Lennon finds the woman he's been missing. It is these scenes that work well and seem truthful in Nowhere Boy. Anne-Marie Duff, who plays Lennon's mother, has a wild craziness in her bug eyes. Her portrayal of Julia captures a woman who is weak and damaged but with a spirit and energy that is contagiously charming but also enigmatic. Her performance is so good that the movie suffers when she is not in it.
Nowhere Boy also suffers in its ability to tell the story of a boy and his relationship with his two mother figures convincingly. Instead of concentrating on dialogue and character development, the film uses loud music and montages to further time and events as well as to show how a character feels or changes. While these techniques create many fascinating images, they are missing the soul needed to make well rounded characters. Instead of watching the transformation of a boy into John Lennon, we view a few dramatic scenes that seem almost out of context due to the lack of narrative. In return, these scenes don't ring true or seem genuine. Nowhere Boy is based on the fascinating true story of one boy's traumatic beginning and his development into the man who would become an icon. It's too bad Nowhere Boy didn't let this story carry the film for it had great actors who could have done it justice.
2 comments:
The best scene in this rather truncated film--truncated in that the familial thread overwhelms the beginning of John's musical life--is the scene where the boy's biological mother teaches him how to play the banjo. Plus, she was my favorite character in the film.
I agree completely. There was so much that the director wanted to show. Sometimes the focus was on the boy's relationship with his aunt, sometimes with his mom, and sometimes it was about his journey into music. The movie attempts to show all and connect each but is unable to do so convincinly.
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