“There’s just no point hating someone you love.”
There really is no question on who the most influential band of all time is. The Beatles have remained a constant inspiration for musicians of all genres and, while there is a slight drop in fan-base, they are still timeless to many people, appealing to younger generations. With all this said, there have been countless film documentaries and bio-pics that focus on the story of the band’s life, but very few dare to focus on the origins of just a single member. Despite what some might say, The Beatles’ success is attributed to each member. The most interesting member, however, has been John Lennon. Lennon had an infamously hectic and unconventional life and there certainly is a fascinating story to be told. You may have your favorite member of the band but John was easily the biggest part of the band’s beginning and end. You would expect a John Lennon movie to focus on his life in the band but this film, ‘Nowhere Boy’, wants to give us an insight into John’s upbringing, before he hit major stardom. It’s an incredibly deep delve into John’s immaturity and shows the teenage rebellion that stuck with him during the band’s early years. This is Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Nowhere Boy.
Our tale focuses on the famed musician (portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) during his high-school days. John is a rebellious teen living in Liverpool in the 50’s and lives with his aunt, Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) who has raised him since he was very young alongside her husband. Tragedy strikes very soon as John’s uncle, who he is very close with, passes away from a heart attack and John and Mimi are left to look out for each other. Mimi acts as the overprotective mother, trying to keep John on the right path while also trying to remain enthused about John’s ambitions. John’s life changes when he runs into his mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) during his uncle’s funeral. Julia tries to talk with John but Mimi keeps him away. John later learns where his mother is living and tracks her down to find her happily married with more kids. Julia is ecstatic to see John back in her life and tries to spend as much time with him as possible, this leads to him developing a shared love of music with her and becomes obsessed with trying to start his own band. He eventually does start the band, The Quarry Men, and meets a younger aspiring musician, Paul McCartney (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and the two begin a close friendship. John’s life isn’t all ups as Mimi learns of John’s time spent with his mother and tension between the two sisters begin, leaving John in the middle. John is obsessed with spending time with his estranged mother which causes tension with his paternal carer.
The crux of this movie is not the exploration of John’s musical talents, it’s a major plot point but it’s not what the film chooses John’s constant back and forth with his mother and aunt. John is left with this constant need for affection from his mother and is blinded by the high energy that speaks to his rebellious spirit. John is ignorant of her choice to step away from him when he was a kid because he feels the need to fill that emotional hole with a constant need for love. Mimi is very conservative and looks down on the idea of free spirit and is initially dismissive of his musical aspirations. When Julia enters the picture, she encourages these beliefs and John becomes romanticized with the free-will lifestyle. Mimi is a very sympathetic character in this case, she may seem quite cruel with her methods but she clearly has a lot of care and love for John and her wanting to keep him away from his mother is to stop John from getting hurt. The film does a great job of putting us in John’s mindset, where you feel ecstatic to see him reconcile with his mother and you feel that energy drop when he learns more about the truth behind his mother’s absence. John is immature and doesn’t understand how to process the bigger, more dramatic moments.
John Lennon is fantastically characterized and Taylor-Johnson finds a great balance of snarky humor mixed with emotional unease. John is a very endearing personality, making it easier to enjoy his difficult behavior. John’s personality is constantly battling with his emotions as he tries to keep up this persona while having to deal with heavy situations. You can see the struggle as he tries as much as he can to garner that lost connection with his mother while trying to protect his aunt after the death of his uncle. It’s also very fascinating to watch the early days of The Beatles (Quarry Men). It’s entertaining to see them dabble in the band’s history but it’s only a small part of the greater story. John’s friendship with Paul is also something that feels minor but it adds a lot of depth to the complexities of John’s issues. Paul is the only person that John is honest with, in the sense of speaking about his emotional issues. Paul has a scattered history with his mother being dead, which gives the two a strange understanding with one another, John’s mum isn’t dead but her absence in his life gives him a similar feeling of emptiness with Paul. Paul can feel a little tacked on to the story, as if to say “we need Paul here because we need to see the birth of The Beatles” but they don’t waste him and he only adds more to the story, unlike George Harrison who definitely feels like a small addendum.
Nowhere Boy isn’t a film I can recommend to just a casual viewer. If you have any appreciation or interest in The Beatles or just John Lennon himself, then you’ll enjoy this quite a lot, but I don’t see much else that could grab a non-fan. It’s certainly an unexpected direction to take a retelling of a Beatles member’s life but that what’s so interesting. The truth is certainly stretched to produce more drama or make things feel more exciting but the core of Lennon’s life is kept in tact. The story is pretty tame and grounded for a member of the biggest band in the world, but that’s all it needed to be. The film tries to humanize everyone around John as well and you don’t ever truly dislike anyone. There doesn’t need to be a villain in this story and it sticks to John’s later views on maintaining ‘peace and love’. The scattered references to Beatles songs and history is a nice addition for hardcore fans as well, it never intrudes. Nowhere Boy is fascinating, if a little bit standard. You should still check it out, though.
Side note: I did a review of Yellow Submarine some months back, so check that out as well.
Written review by C. Johnson.