Son of Rambow Review
by tom elce (dr-pepperite AT hotmail DOT com)April 20th, 2008
Son of Rambow (2008)
Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Director: Garth Jennings
Cast: Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jules Sitruk, Jessica Stevenson, Neil Dudgeon, Ed Westwick, Zofia Brooks, Eric Sykes, Charlie Thrift, Anna Wing
MPAA Rating: PG-13
BBFC Rating: 12A
As much a love letter to filmmaking in general as it is to "First Blood," which inspires two young boys to make a sorta-sequel despite youthful ineptitude, "Son of Rambow" captures the joy of cinema and also of childhood itself. Because it comes from a genuine place in writer-director Garth Jennings' heart, then, it is disappointing to watch his Sundance indie gradually succumb to routine sentiment over a ninety-minute running time that otherwise flows smoothly. At the end of the day it qualifies as a good film, though; A coming-of-age tale that suffers hugely in comparison to masterpieces like 1986's "Stand By Me" and 2005's "Mean Creek," "Sone of Rambow" feels a little safe for the expectations set up by an interesting premise that nevertheless feels like a hopeful, wholly pleasant meditation on childhood, friendship and faith.
A sort-of cousin to the recent "Be Kind Rewind," the '80s-set "Son of Rambow" is also a slightly better film, undeniably helped by the fact it doesn't steal it's jokes from eight-year-old Nickelodeon programmes. The jokes themselves come via the endearing-if-dictated relationship by youngsters Will (Bill Milner) and Lee (Will Poulter), the former a well-behaved student in a religious family and the latter a foul-mouthed, thieving boy of the same age. Together they set out to make a movie to be submitted by Lee to a film competition, dubbed "Son of Rambow" by Will, whose artistic eyes have been opened further following a viewing, courtesy of Lee's bootlegged copy, of "Rambo: First Blood" and cause him to launch himself into a project that to them appropriately seems like a work of visionary proportion, but to older people strikes off as inept. Becoming involved over time in their moviemaking venture is one Didier Revol (Jules Sitruk), a rad French exchange student who himself sees something worth attempting in Will and Lee's film when he becomes bored with his new habitat.
Wavering between the positively lovely moments - Will and Lee's first filmmaking montage, a cameo from an old man as Rambo himself in their film, and Didier's audition - and the forced - the inane gags involving Didier before he becomes involved in the film - "Son of Rambow" is an uneven British comedy that sometimes confuses charm for Sundancey-quirk. Will and Lee's individual stories are thrown into the mixture of their filmmaking togetherness and collide off of eachother. Will's story, for example, is refreshing in how it shows a religious upbringing in a positive light, a ray of hope in an otherwise unspectacular existence that, for Will, nurtures his artistic drive and helps him maintain a sunny outlook on life. That the flaws in his religion are sometimes exposed is more a necessity than unwelcome pointified argument.
The story of Lee's homelife, however, is as half-baked and contrived as any other bad aspect of a coming-of-age film. One assumes the inpiration behind the "broken home" plot he's straddled in is the bad- boy image his character (who uncaringly steals from stores, school and charity boxes), which feels more sour than sweet as it rolls around and builds, one suspects, towards a resolution. Familial divide isn't actually a reasoning behind kids going off the rails, which Garth Jennings could have learned from as he isolates a small portion of his audience.
The positives outweigh the negatives though in "Son of Rambow," which inspires a notalgic feeling in anyone who has ever been a child with it's appreciation of innocent childhood misadventures and gorgeous summers that only ever seem to exist when you're a youngster. If too much of the film hangs on slapstick and the analysis of a French character whose existence is never really given full justification, the film can be forgiven as a well-meaning walk through territory that so many adults will have walked through when they themselves were kids - if not in making a ramshackle movie than in some other gloriously derivative thing they did in respone to something they saw which changed their lives if only for a fleeting period.
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