Ah ha, the human side of John Lennon at last.
My girlfriend and I escaped the cold to watch this at the Showroom cinema in Sheffield at the last minute. I think I was initially put off by watching a potential love-in to a man whose status as a genius I’ve never been particularly convinced of.
Using a solo song ("Mother") from his back-catalogue the film Nowhere Boy reminds us that this is not the story of The Beatles but of its founding member, (co...) singer, guitarist and songwriter. It’s a clever way to close matters at a point where you are expecting scenes of tawdry nightclubs in Hamburg.
Kristin Scott Thomas gives a wonderfully restrained performance as a woman constantly on the verge of boiling over and balances so many sides of a character at once that you are almost moved to stand up and applaud her by the end.
Aaron Johnson succeeds in pulling off the tricky task of portraying somebody who is outwardly fairly arrogant and dislikeable and finds some sympathy within, which kept me interested in following his story.
There is a dreadfully miscast actor as the young Paul McCartney who scowls and pouts his way through his scenes which feels at odds with the McCartney we all know. The actor would have been better off as George Harrison with a more lively and enthusiastic soul slotted into the role of Paul.
For some reason, perhaps my own deep cynicism, the scenes where the future members of The Beatles meet and begin forging their future felt quite embarrassing and are not really treated with a great deal of subtlety or originality… but then again Nowhere Boy isn’t a Beatles museum and it’s focus on domestic turmoil and tender emotions are at odds with the crowd pleasing Fab Four moments.
