Tuesday Minute
No. 201 | December 28, 2010

It’s Kind of a True Story

Our theme this week
Recent movies based on stories of real people

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   The Social Network:  Mark Zuckerberg
 

Nowhere Boy:  John Lennon

If you’d like to draw a comparison between the 1960s and our time, you might start with the two subjects of the films featured Monday and Tuesday:  both wildly successful young men, prominent voices of their time, advocates of change, idols of their generation.  Once upon a time rock ‘n’ roll wasthe revolution.  Now rock ‘n’ roll is mostly music, something on the soundtrack, and the revolution is technology.  Seems to me the dream has gotten smaller, and Mark Zuckerberg and his generation, for all their ambition, could learn from John Lennon and his.  Lennon, in his too-brief time, knew a thing or two about changing the world.

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right, all right, all right

Nowhere Boy is a coming-of-age story, set in 1950s Liverpool, during Lennon’s teen years.  It’s not about the founding of the Beatles, and it’s barely about the founding of the Quarrymen, Lennon’s band that Paul McCartney joined in 1957, and George Harrison a year later.  The film’s primary focus is Lennon’s relationship with two prominent women, his Aunt Mimi, the guardian who housed him and raised him, and his mother, Julia, who abandoned him as a boy but later gave him the gift that would make him a figure for the ages, his passion for music.

Unlike the other “true-life” movies this week, Nowhere Boy has the difficult task of defining a character we already know, or think we know, too well.  A film about Lennon, one of the most famous men of the past century, is something we see for the experience, not so much for discovery.  The filmmakers give us only a short slice of his life, before he was a public figure, but there’s still a problem.  As we watch we can’t help but wonder, This is the boy that became John Lennon?  For the first part of the film, my answer was, I don’t think so.  We do see a transformation, but it’s sudden, not really earned, and the film feels somewhat disjointed.  One minute Lennon is quiet and passive, the next he’s the sarcastic rebel, a familiar figure that we can relate to.  Once the film finds its footing, it’s a more worthwhile and enjoyable show.

Though the hero of the story, Lennon is a difficult character, and the film, to its credit, gives us the good with the bad, as well as an understanding of the early hardships that would fuel his passions for the rest of his life.  Young British actor Aaron Johnson plays Lennon.  His resemblance works better in medium and long shot.  Kristin Scott Thomas as the tough-loving Mimi, and Anne-Marie Duff as the troubled Julia, give two solid performances.  Sam Taylor-Wood directed, her debut feature film.  (Taylor-Wood is now engaged to Johnson, who is 23 years her junior, and the couple had a daughter this summer.)

The film probably will appeal to Beatles fans more than to others, yet it may work best for those who bring an open mind and leave their expecations at the door.

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Nowhere Boy (2010)
Sam Taylor-Wood, director
Julia Baird (memoir), Matt Greenhalgh (screenplay), writers
Seamus McGarvey, cinematographer
Trailer

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Quote of note
John:  Why couldn’t God make me Elvis?
Julia:  Cause he was saving you for John Lennon!
—John (Aaron Johnson), Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), Nowhere Boy (2010)

…58…59…60.

1. Tim T. Bahe says:

   December 20, 2011 at 8:27 am

   okay so i downloaded firefox. i’ve been using firefox for a while, and all a sudden when i x’ed out my firefox and opened it again it wont go to websites, it wont even say page not displayed. it will just be blank. so i unstalled it and re stalled it and it worked when it was launched from the reinstal but when i x’ed it out again and opened it it showed blank. does anyone know how i can fix this????.