Nowhere Boy

Ten albums in the Top 40, their name on the lips of every TV commentator, and legions of fans queuing through the night for the latest release featuring the Mersey-beat masters.

No, not the height of Beatlemania, but September 2009, when once again John, Paul, George and Ringo seemed to take over the cultural world.

With re-releases of their albums, and The Beatles: Rockband introducing the scouse quartet’s music to a new generation of plastic guitar-wielding gamers, it seems somehow appropriate the year should round out with a John Lennon biopic making an assault on the silver screen.

Yet artist and photographer Sam Taylor-Wood’s film is no escapist romp like Help! or A Hard Day’s Night.

Stepping back to 1955′s Liverpool we find the smart, troubled teenage Lennon (Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging’s Aaron Johnson) pulling schoolboy pranks, chatting up the local ladies and hungry for new experiences.

Yet the young “genius” - an opinion the film seems to take very much for granted – is caught between the opposing attitudes of the austere aunt, Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), who raised him and the newly rediscovered flame-haired anarchy offered by his mother, Julia (Shameless’ Ann-Marie Duff).

Based on the book Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon, by Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird, the tale is undoubtedly an interesting one, and offers a window into the development of one of pop’s most iconic figures.

And for fans of the would-be peace prophet there is a lot to take away.

But perhaps those expecting some form of revelatory insight into the early years of The Quarrymen might leave disappointed.

Yes, young versions of Paul McCartney and George Harrison appear - with 17-year-old Thomas Sangster once again displaying the versatility that saw Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson try to recruit him for Tintin.

Yet the focus remains the emotional battle for Lennon himself, as he uncovers some of the many skeletons his family have been hiding from him.

And in that respect the film comes a little unstuck.

With Aaron Johnson, the film does have someone capable of depicting the cheeky, cock-sure Lennon.

But the role calls for a heart to back the histrionics, and at times the tears and tantrums lack a little believability.

Plus, even at the best of times it seems a little unfair to force young actors, even the more talented ones, to share scenes with the ever-excellent Kristin Scott Thomas, as inevitably she will prove capable of acting them into a cocked hat.

But thanks to a script interjected with a dry wit and period setting in which all involved are clearly revelling, these criticisms languish as minor foibles in comparison to the overall achievement.

If 3D blue aliens don’t grab your interest this Christmas, or you just fancy a slice of 1950s nostalgia, then with Nowhere Boy’s heartwarming tale you won’t go far wrong.

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First published in the Lincolnshire Echo on Thursday December 24 2009.

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