Pretty Good

An action-packed slog

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Aaron Johnson plays a very convincing John Lennon. The movie catch from start to finish, and afterwords you want more.

Although it may sound stupid and girly, I first watched this movie purely because I'm a fan of Thomas Brodie-Sangster who plays Paul McCartney in this film, but when I watched it... It's hard to explain what you feel when you watch this movie because there are so many emotions that go through your head. You fall in love with John's cockiness and boldness, and the fact he's really a bit of a mummy's boy and his sensitivity, you cry at the end (no spoilers ;)), and you can so easily laugh the whole way through, and so on. Also considering I grew up with my parents playing Beatles tracks, it's always good to know a bit more about an internationally famous band you basically grew up listening to. One heck of a movie, beautiful acting, emotional (you might have guessed that :D), and a story that never leaves you.

Before John Lennon became famous as one of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960's, he was just another teenage boy filled with many unanswered questions as to who he really was, who his natural parents were, and he maintained distant and tormented memories of his very early childhood. Aaron Taylor-Johnson played the teenage John Lennon with convincing authority. Some viewers would say that Aaron Taylor-Johnson did not look like the real young John Lennon, but I would rather have a good portrayal by an actor than someone who just happened to look like John Lennon. The movie has no mention of the world wide fame and future of the Beatles which is just fine with me. Instead it focuses on the early childhood of young John growing up in Liverpool with his Auntie Mimi and Uncle George and his introduction to how music could mesmerize the world. Like a lot of families there are issues with adult siblings and their offspring. John happens to be one of those children affected as he is raised by his Auntie Mimi and Uncle George from the age of 5 to 15. He eventually reconnects with his birth mother and this just adds to John's turmoil, but also provides him with his first taste of a stringed instrument that his mom helps him learn.Kristin Scott Thomas plays Auntie Mimi superbly, as the loving and authoritative mother that John was lacking. His questions about why he came to live with his Aunt and Uncle are gradually realized, and his birth mom and Aunt (who are sisters) put aside their differences and John seems happy to see that they have patched up their differences.We also see how Paul McCartney and George Harrison eventually join John's band originally named the Quarrymen. If you are interested in how the Beatles actually became the Beatles then this movie will not shed any light on that history which came later in their lives when they eventually connect with producer Brian Epstein. I did not consider Nowhere Boy anything special, but it did accomplish what it set out to do which was to provide Beatles fans with insight in to what kind of a life John Lennon had growing up in Liverpool and how like many teenage boys who established a band, got their start in life. I rated this movie only a 5 out of 10 as Nowhere Boy could have been about any teenage boy whose actual childhood living with an aunt and uncle could resemble that of any one of a thousand teenage boys, who came from a broken family. Nowhere Boy is interesting because it happens to be about the early adolescence of John Lennon. This movie allows the viewer to witness John Lennon from simple beginnings as one of three young teenagers from the town of Liverpool who formed a band with their original drummer Pete Best (before Ringo Starr) decide on their own to travel to Hamburg Germany for a few months and see if they could make it in the music industry. And so their historical journey began......

I really enjoyed this film which I watched at the "Woolton" in south Liverpool which is a small independent cinema located in the heart of the area featured in the film of John Lennon's adolescence.I thought the film convincingly conjured up the period which I lived through myself. I also bought into the tension between the characters in certain scenes.Best of all was the casting of Aaron Johnson as Lennon. He gives a truly brilliant portrayal of the complex man, disturbing in some places, laugh out loud funny in others.This is proper film making with a clear narrative and character development in situations that should lead you through a range of emotions by the time it ends.