Cast: Will Poulter, Bill Milner, Jessica Stevenson

Director: Garth Jennings

Screenplay: Garth Jennings

Running time: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Indie/Drama/Comedy



CRITIQUE:


A moment of consideration takes place within SON OF RAMBOW, so far 2008’s quirkiest, most charming indie, that we have all been kids, at least once. Pictures of childhood tales usually cause a blast of nostalgia, enlivening the embarrassments, the dreamy-shaded memories and of course, the adventures. This is the era of our lives where silliness rules and the weak are bullied and the nastiest are sent off to detentions. Familiarity is natural for a film like SON OF RAMBOW, and in this tale of childhood friendship between two almost-opposite school boys, there’s nary a scintilla of storyline originality. But how it’s handled is surprisingly fresh. From a predictable plot and a glossy sheen wrapping (including its Rambo’s FIRST BLOOD origins), it evolves into a whimsical but deeply affecting movie about the power of imagination and childhood emancipation. And if you’re a kid once, grubby or neat-faced, this is definitely relatable.


As the title suggests, Rambo is a figure taken into the context of the film: an innately shy, isolated boy Will Proudfoot, whose punitive family belongs to a rigorous religion with Spartan codes, is befriended by a local school bully Lee Carter. The two are fatherless, yet the movie does not exemplify this too much, and rather embodies it to the society and school that they move about. This is England in the 80s and Thatcher’s children are on the streets. Riotous as schools can be, the story focuses on these two boys’ share of bonding; Will, an imaginative child, who turned his personal Holy Bible into a colouring book, and commenced on rampage as inspired by Rambo from a VHS – fisticuffs on the forests, diving lakes, climbing trees and fighting invisible assailants. It’s all captured by Lee on his videocam, as they try to come up with their own FIRST BLOOD version.


There’s a heart hidden beneath the political, religious and social undercurrents of this film. From Will’s strict household upbringing, denying the child the influence of television, to Lee’s detached family as he’s taken care by an irreverent brother – the major characters are social victims of their parents. The latter is an easy target for being bullied but he’s more psychologically persecuted, like a child whose imagination and childhood has been forced to be locked up away from him. The latter, a bully, also a delusion to a bullied character himself. Yet the power of friendship is there, as their childhood imagination heals both of their wounds in a quiet, compelling manner. In a crucial scene where these two boys slash their palms and clasp for a blood bond, even with these little-known actors, the friendship is genuine, and found patriarchal sentiment from Rambo as their adopted father – a rather violent one.


It stumbles slightly as the character Didier, the French-exchange student, infuses the latter scenes, probably for more comical intentions. But picks up its own weight for a sweet, affecting, wonderful ending that would – for anyone who had some similar childhood adventures – make one cry. And it’s all nailed by a self-assured direction by Garth Jennings, and the two lead child actors, Poulter and Milner as Will and Lee respectively, whose remarkable performances are as natural, as substantial as they could be.


VERDICT:

You wouldn’t take a poo on Rambo, but SON OF RAMBOW does, rather nonchalantly – and triumphs with its charming tale of childhood, friendship and family. A winning indie with a poignant heart and imagination at its core.



RATING: A-