Review of Nowhere Boy (2009) by Peter H — 30 Jan 2011

I've never been much of a John Lennon fan, or even very into The Beatles, but if you know anything about them at all, you should find Nowhere Boy interesting, and even if you don't, the movie's verisimilitude is impressive. The movie isn't prone to making moral judgments about its characters. It just shows you who they were.

The movie picks up at the death of the last stable, affectionate presence in his life. After that, he swings back and forth between his adoring but helplessly inept biological mother and Mimi, his generous, but cold and unpleasable Aunt/ guardian. As the melodrama of John's past unfolds, he lashes out and unwittingly creates what was to become one of the biggest phenomena in music history.

While John Lennon is certainly the central figure of the story, all the players are excellently portrayed and fascinating in their own right. Mimi's character caught my attention from the beginning, as she skeptically eyed the book in her hands, the kind of woman who likes to read, but apparently not for pleasure. It was very gratifying to watch her gradually warm from the woman who tells a sobbing John "Don't be silly" over his death of his uncle to the woman who fondly embraces her de facto son at the end.

Don't let the movie's boisterous rock n' roll soundtrack fool you. This movie will test you emotionally.