Directed Sam Taylor-Wood
There have been many documentaries and films about the early days of the Beatles, but this film about John Lennon’s early life centres on the two key women in his life. John only has vague memories of the last time he saw his mother because he was brought up by his aunt Mimi (Kirsten Scott Thomas) from the age of five. It is not until he is 15 that he reconnects with the volatile Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) who has remarried and has another family. It is 1955 and the rebellious John knows very little about rock and roll. This is because his two mothers were polar opposites – Mimi, who is the epitome of respectability and listens to classical music while Julia prefers Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
When John meets his mother Julia, he forms an instant bond with her and she takes John to see an Elvis film at the local cinema. He’s bewitched by Julia, and the world of rock’n’roll, and as his behaviour at school worsens, a huge family melodrama erupts. John is caught in the middle of the feuding sisters and uses music as his escape. He starts a band with a group of friends called the Quarry Men, and meets a kindred spirit – Paul McCartney (Thomas Brody Sangster) who introduces Lennon to the young guitarist George Harrison (Sam Bell). Although she supported him, Aunt Mimi, used to regularly say, ‘The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.’
Nowhere Boy is full of emotional highs and lows as John struggles with conflicting and changing emotions for his two mothers and metamorphosises into a confident young rocker. Incidentally, both Lennon and director Taylor-Wood were abandoned by their mothers, though Lennon’s pain was later compounded when his mother was killed in a traffic accident.
Lezly Herbert
