Dec 2009: Nowhere Boy | The Merry Gentleman

Nowhere Boy

The film concentrates on a period in Lennon's teenage life from around 1955-1958, during which the adolescent future Fab went through a series of events that clearly shaped his later life. Unfortunately, while these events should make for compelling viewing, "Nowhere Boy" manages to turn them into quite a slight film that merely shuffles along from one Beatles reference to the next. In general, the script is reasonably okay, but every so often a line crops up that is so clunky it threatens to derail the whole film. This is typified by a line near the end of the film, where Lennon's aunt Mimi asks him to remind her of the name of his new band, a moment guaranteed to cause the entire audience in the cinema to cringe in unison. Thankfully, director Sam Taylor Wood declines Lennon the opportunity to fulfil the potential mass grimace, as John merely smiles knowingly at Mimi. Leading man Aaron Johnson's performance does little to elevate the film. While he is generally competent, he frequently betrays his theatrical roots, overacting in many of his scenes,and turning up the teenage angst to eleven throughout. Johnson's relationship with his on screen mother, the always-excellent Anne-Marie Duff, is also problematic. Partly because of how close they appear in age, the relationship feels far more like two lovers than a mother and a son. This slightly incestuous undercurrent feels really inappropriate, and unnecessary, and any merit it did have is lost by it being implied, rather than confronted head on. While Johnson leaves something to be desired, the supporting cast are reasonably competent, although Thomas Sangster as Paul McCartney is incredibly jarring. In spite of a good performance, the fact that Sangster doesn't seem to have aged a day in the six years since sabotages any hope he had of pulling off the part. Andrew Buchan (from the superb ITV series) is criminally underused. Buchan is masterful at underplaying roles, but here his performance is almost subterranean and his could actually be the titular role. ("Nowhere Boy/Man" - get it?) The one shining light throughout the entire film is Kristin Scott Thomas. As Lennon's aunt and legal guardian, she creates a character who is emotionally repressed and yet is by far the most sympathetic character in the piece. She is so good that at times it felt as if though she is in a different film to the rest of the cast as her performance is almost in a different league to that of her co-stars. The picture frequently misses obvious opportunities to shine. About halfway through, there is a sequence in which Lennon learns to play the banjo. It is an inventive and enjoyable piece of filmmaking that betrays what this film could have been. By contrast - about 80 minutes into the film there is a perfect end point, and yet it is allowed to bluster on for another quarter of an hour, unsubtly lurching towards an utterly predictable final reference. Despite the obviously difficult task of shoehorning even a brief period in the life of John Lennon into a ninety minute narrative, "Nowhere Boy" is still quite a bit away from the film that it could have been, had more care and attention gone into the script and the casting.

* In March 1957, after getting his first guitar, John formed a group which, for the first week, involved only himself and Pete Shotton. They called themselves the Black Jacks for less than a week, before changing their name to The Quarry Men, as they both attended the Quarry Bank High School for Boys, and Quarry Men sounded more skiffly. Paul McCartney joined in 1957, and George Harrison joined 1958, and they remained The Quarry Men until the very end of 1959, when they briefly appeared as Johnny and the Moondogs, which sounded more skiffle-like. John, however, hated it, and in 1960 they changed their name five times before settling on The Beatles.

The Merry Gentleman

Director: Michael Keaton

Writer: Ron Lazzeretti

Cast: Michael Keaton, Kelly Macdonald, Bobby Canavale, Tom Bastounes, Guy Van Swearingen, Keith Kupferer, Darlene Hunt, William Dick, Kareem Bandealy, Philip Earl Johnson

Running time: 1hr 39mins

Michael Keaton seems to be someone who is able to access areas from his own personal reservoirs of emotion, showing that he can be brilliantly funny or truthfully tormented or simply just an extremely interesting character actor. His appearances in cinema have been relatively rare over the past decade or so, but now that wrong has been corrected with Keaton's performance in his directorial debut, The Merry Gentleman.

Keaton stars as Frank Logan, a quiet Chicago hitman who works during the day as a tailor. Kate Frazier (Kelly Macdonald) is new in town, having managed to escape some dreadful treatment from her violent husband in an attempt at starting a new life. She charms everyone around her with her Scottish accent and her unassuming beauty, though she's simply just a little shy and wounded. One night as she emerges from work she glances up into the night sky to appreciate the falling snow, and glances a mysterious man standing on a ledge above her and screams, causing him to fall backwards to safety, rather than forwards to his death. This was Frank, who had just completed a rooftop job but didn't appear to be too happy about it. Later, Kate bumps into him, not knowing who he really is, when a newly purchased Christmas tree falls on her, and they begin an odd friendship. Simultaneously an overweight, recovering alcoholic policeman (Tom Bastounes), the one who responded to Kate's call, asks her out for a meal and she agrees, naively assuming this 'date' is merely to discuss the case whilst the rotund rozzer clearly has other intentions.

One of Keaton's best moves was in hiring the always excellent Kelly Macdonald for his leading lady. This highly-accomplished Scottish actress, best known for her work in Trainspotting, Gosford Park and No Country for Old Men, has no problem creating a character who's wounded, cautious, and scared - but also sweet, generous, and genuine. She has now established herself as a quite superb performer, and not just because she's a woman with the world's best accent. As Kate, she is a totally believable human being with certain qualities. She resists being "needed." Here, men come onto her and flirt with her and she always resists. She won't take on anyone else's problems. Frank is the only one who never directly asks her for anything or assumes anything. He just quietly turns up and listens and lends her a hand from time to time. When he develops pneumonia over Christmas, she spends the time in the hospital with him as he has no family and she doesn't want to see hers. Indeed, the film never confirms any kind of sexual or romantic connection between them.

As the lovesick cop with a few tricks up his sleeve, newcomer Tom Bastounes is also very good at building a conflicted character who's very kind and decent but also has a few character flaws of his own. Things get even more interesting when Kate's abusive spouse Michael (Bobby Cannavale) turns up, having tracked her down. To atone for his sins, he has found religion and has become something of a fanatic, throwing in a "praise Jesus" every few minutes while he tells his story. His religion is the officially approved version, as opposed to Kate's vague, spiritual purity, and he comes across like a salivating creep. Worse, he's still asking Kate for a part of herself (which she, of course, refuses to grant to anyone who asks).

However above all this, is the immense pleasure of seeing Michael Keaton back on the cinema screen, and the veteran actor does an excellent job on both sides of the camera. His debut as a director is a film with an austere look, a moody sensibility, and a measured pace, because Keaton clearly cares about these characters. As the usually silent assassin Frank Logan, Keaton bring some unspoken conflict to his every scene. He's not a "killer with a heart of gold," but a man who seems to have grown weary of pain and just wants to spend a little time with someone sweet.

This is a remarkable debut, touching on physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual planes all at once. I hope it's the first step in sending Keaton back to the A-list. Certainly not a warm-hearted love story, or an action-packed hit-man adventure, The Merry Gentleman is content to be a relatively straightforward human story but with a strong intellectual capacity that Keaton should be very proud of as his first in direction.