I finally got around to seeing this John Lennon Biopic. The beginning gave me hope this would be a high quality accurate film, however it soon lapsed into what I feared it would become: an overdramatized and over the top take on John's relationship with Aunt Mimi and mother Julia. The film promoters promoted this as the ONLY film EVER to depict John's childhood and the formation of the Beatles...I beg to differ. As a Beatles' buff I've seen MANY other biopics, most of them hit and miss like this one. I think the first part of the film was well done, and accurate in depicting John's homelife, and how he got exposed to Elvis, rock, Paul and George. My big qualm again is how they wrote in the fictional dialogue based only loosely on the facts of John's family life. The dialogue soon lapsed into overblown unbelievable high drama, when we know John was MUCH less confrontational than that. So all that garbage with him confronting Julia and Mimi is obviously total fiction (with a few true facts thrown in for good measure). It's unfortunate that they took that low road, since this had the potential to be a quintessential John Biopic, and many aspects WERE authentic, including wardrobe, location, and music. But they chose to make it into a soap-opera-ish version that John himself would have scoffed at. Overall worth seeing, but only if you skip over the high drama segments.Finally passing grades on the acting, however most of he characters don't really remind one of the actual people; i.e. if you didn't KNOW they were supposed to be who they were you wouldn't be able to easily guess.

What makes for a good biographical epic anyway? Since watching movies is a visceral experience I'd like to think the best movies based on real events like Gandhi (1982) and Amadeus (1984) keep the spirit of the person or event intact. Small embellishments or endearing character traits can sometimes add to the story so long as they don't go overboard. Anyone remember Patch Adams (1998)? How about Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)? Two stories certainly worth telling that were dragged in the muck because of one too many tall tales.Well, I didn't think it was possible but it seems it can work the other way around too. You can have too little embellishment, too little false characterizations and too little drama. Thus was the case of the 2009's look at John Lennon's adolescents Nowhere Boy. Now anyone who knows me knows I'm a pretty big admirer of The Beatles. Not big enough to own all their albums on vinyl but big enough to actually know which album is which. You could say in comparison to others in my generation who have never actually seen them live, I'm a fan. I say all this to put my opinion of Nowhere Boy in a context. You may be a bigger fan than I and loved the film in which case bully for you. I however found it dull.John Lennon's early adolescence consisted of a broken household and a lost identity. Living with close relatives for most of his life, the young John meets his birth mother only after the death of his uncle. His aunt, of course is not a fan of them gallivanting around Liverpool when he should be doing his homework. Nor is she a fan of John starting a band with schoolmates for that matter. Things however reach their climax when John begins to put the puzzle together and confronts his mother with complex questions like "why did you leave me?" "who is my father?" and "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?"Its all pretty heavy and if it were anyone else, the story and its resolution would have worked, but this is John f*****g Lennon! Seeing him breaking a washboard over a friends head in a drunken rage or wagging his bits at school girls make him look like a particularly maladjusted teenager not the symbol of love, peace and awesomeness I've pictured. I'm not saying he wasn't a total jerk in grade school, he likely was, but why is his broken home worth the biographic treatment? If anything it should consist of a very small part of a hero worshiping epic starring Michael Sheen and directed by James Manigold. Not the whole subject of a movie about a poor boy with an Oedipus complex starring the kid from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).

A great exploration of John Lennon's teen years, especially his relationships with his mom and aunt/guardian. The relationships are quite sensitively handled, though maybe overwrought.Also shows what shaped his personality and subsequent history. As a music fan, the events that created the Beatles and their music are particularly interesting, especially Lennon's first meeting with Paul McCartney and their subsequent friendship and collaboration. Aaron Johnson is very good as Lennon, Kristin Scott Thomas is superb as Aunt Mimi and the remaining cast are solid.Worth watching as a biopic on one of the most influential musicians in history, or purely as a human drama.

John Lennon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is living with his aunt (Kristin Scott Thomas) and uncle. When his uncle dies, John feels left alone with his cold aunt. Then his absentee mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) comes back into his life. He gets more disruptive and is suspended from school. He and his emotionally unstable mother try to bond together with music against the wishes of the aunt.All three lead actors are terrific in this. I cannot say enough about the great acting. John meeting Paul McCartney and George Harrison becomes more of an afterthought. This is about the chaos of John Lennon's formative years. This movie is actually a bit better in the first half where we see his home life in turmoil. The second half has a bit too much of the Beatles origins story. In the end, that's not what this story is about. It's about the women who shaped John Lennon's life.