Son of Rambow Reviewed

Memory’s a funny thing.  Especially when it comes to your childhood, all of a sudden what was mundane at the time is extraordinary Technicolor today, much more than that though are the things that seemed wonderful and exciting you now never pay a second glance.  Son of Rambow takes you back to an 80’s high school in the UK and I’m pretty sure it was exactly like this.

Will is a fountain of imagination who lives inside his world of colourful drawings.  His family are members of the Plymouth Brethren a sect not unlike the Quakers where television is prohibited and a simple life is emphasised.  But Will attends a normal school and while sat in the hallway one day while his classmates watch a documentary he meets the rebellious Lee Carter, who has of course been sent to the hallway from his own classroom for other reasons.  An awkward fight breaks out and as they tend to between boys a grudging respect is exchanged that eventually turns into a mismatched friendship.  When Will sees a pirate version of Rambo in Carter’s house he has a new topic to base his drawings on and they start making a film using Carter’s brother’s video equipment.

I first heard of this film when I saw the trailer before Be Kind Rewind and it appeared to be an unfortunately timed possible rip-off.  Like Michel Gondry’s Rewind this is also from the minds of music video directors.  This is the second Hammer and Tongs feature film.  The director producer duo aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith previously made the weak Hitchhikers Guide feature film but like Gondry have an affection for the visual trick.  This film is not so reliant on that however and it is the developing friendship that makes this worthwhile.  Will and Lee Carter are both outcasts from the school mainstream and become dependent on each other and the film they produce.  When the film starts to open the world up to them it is the story and not filmmaking gags that keeps your interest.

The world created for the film is entirely exaggerated, Lee Carter chain smokes, his entirely absent parents have left him and his older brother in a huge marble clad home.  A contingent of French exchange students are like exotic peacocks and the sixth year common room is like a zoo of new romantics.  Will’s strict upbringing is the only thing underplayed here, his mother is a real character rather than an overbearing troll.

The young actors cope with their roles admirably and especially exceptional is Bill Milner in the role of Will.  I look forward to seeing his career develop.

Gondry’s film lost much of its humour and its soul somewhere in development, the filmmaking scenes were absolute genius but there was little else to it.  Be Kind Rewind was a love letter to making film and it’s creative challenges.  Rambow on the other hand is about the friendship that blossomed making their film.  I’ll be very disappointed if I find this is not a very personal story for the film makers it oozes emotional investment.   It’s is a brilliant picture of boyhood in the 80’s, maybe not the way it was but certainly the way you remember it.
9/10