John Lennon - Nowhere Boy

A well-crafted coming-of-age story

To a certain extent, John Lennon is a supporting character in this biopic of his late teenage years, directed by artist Sam Taylor- Wood. While the moptop-in-waiting pursues the usual adolescent distractions of girls and rock’n’roll, it’s the tug-of-love he invokes between two strong women that gives the film its heart.

Living with his strait-laced, chain-smoking, Bach-loving Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), the young Lennon (Aaron Johnson) goes in search of the mother who “abandoned” him years earlier (Anne-Marie Duff). The flighty and irresponsible Julia doesn’t meet with Mimi’s approval, which only exacerbates John’s frustrations over his own identity and with whom his familial loyalties should lie.

Music takes a back seat; there are brief clips of fledgling Quarrymen rehearsals and gigs, where Lennon bonds with Paul McCartney (Thomas Sangster) over their shared experiences of absentee mums. But it’s the perfectly-judged performances of Scott Thomas, representing post-war morality, and Duff, embodying the oncoming permissive society, that stay with the viewer and cement a solidly-constructed portrait of changing times.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

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Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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