The Canadian premiere of photographer Sam Taylor-Wood’s directorial debut came as the closing feature of the CMW Film Festival. Nowhere Boy details the late teenage years of John Lennon in Liverpool as he struggles with family and passions, but offers much more. When many think of the early years of the clean-cut Beatles, smiling honestly with eyes full of wonder, very little mind is actually paid to the trials and tribulations that they — Lennon specifically — faced before making it big.With the vested mutual interest worldwide in the music and lore of the Beatles you’d think that Taylor-Wood would be scared off by such a daunting story, but perhaps it was necessary for a newcomer to take on a different facet of Lennon’s life. The story of Nowhere Boy follows the adolescent Lennon, struggling in school and lacking direction as he pieces together his life after a family tragedy and tries to make sense of the role of his mother in that life.
Taylor-Wood’s penchant for photography comes through in spades in Nowhere Boy with a slightly dulled brightness signifying the loss of innocence in growing up that Lennon must face. And as good as Aaron Johnson is as the young Lennon, full praise has to be given to Kristen Scott-Thomas as John’s hard-nosed aunt and Anne-Marie Duff as Lennon’s mother, the opposites of these two characters pop right off the screen and make them instantly enjoyable. The film, soon to have a proper North American release, is not to be missed, and not just for Beatles fans, rather for film fans as the story of teenage ambition and shortcomings is one of the best told in recent memory.
