Celebrating what would have been his 70th birthday, even a week late, John Lennon is honored, or depicted, or examined, in a biographical film about his teen-age years, which certainly were difficult ones. Based on a memoir by his half-sister, Julia Baird, the film clearly shows the struggle–both sexual and adolescent (not always the same thing)–in Lennon’s relationship with his mother.
Lennon’s mother, Julia, beautifully played by Anne-Marie Duff, was a woman who could not maintain a relationship, liked to pop in and out of a variety of beds. So it was okay with her when young John was informally adopted by her older sister, Mimi (strong portrayal by Kristin Scott Thomas) and her husband, George (a sweet man as played by David Threlfall). John spent time with both women, learning literature and manners from the strait-laced Mimi, rock-and-roll music and sexuality from Julia, who taught him to play the banjo. George’s contribution was humor and laughter, plus the boy’s first harmonica.
Aaron Johnson is excellent as Lennon, though he looks rather old for the part. He shows the pressure under which he lives, and the desire to be a rock-and-roll-rebel and a proper English schoolboy at the same time causes many problems. Alex Ambrose, as the younger Lennon, is a treat.
Mimi has a constant internal struggle. She loves her sister, and the boy she is caring for, but she cannot understand them. She wants to hug and comfort John, but cannot cross into an area she sees as wrong. Meanwhile, Julia, a confirmed hedonist, keeps offering different lessons to the boy, always acting at cross-purposes with Mimi.
The movie, an interesting look at a 20th-century musical idol, ends as Lennon and his new group prepares to leave for Hamburg and some of the concerts that made them famous. Along the way, however, he forms the Quarrymen, he practices, he plays and he is awfully rude to a young, left-handed guitar player named Paul.
Nowhere Boy opens today at Ronnie’s and the Tivoli
—Joe