Starring:
Neil Dudgeon, Bill Milner, Jessica Hynes, Anna Wing, Will Poulter, Tallulah Evans
Director:
Garth Jennings
Writer:
Garth Jennings
Executive Producers:
Hengameh Panahi, Bristol Bauhan, Ben Goldhirsh, Jonathan Davies
Producers:
Nick Goldsmith, Trevor Evans
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
MPAA – PG-13 for some violence and reckless behaviour
Distributor:
Paramount Vantage
When
I first saw the poster for the movie,
Son
Of Rambow
,
for some reason, I felt as though the movie would not be so good.
Maybe it had something to do with the “W” at the end of the word
“Rambow”, but who can really be sure? However, even with my
doubts, I went into the movie as open-minded as possible. The result?
Mediocre at best. To put it simply, the movie is nothing special, it
doesn’t discuss some kind of cool concept, and it doesn’t have
any interesting plot twists.
The
story is about two boys with different personalities and lifestyles
who come together to make a movie based on the classic action film
Rambo
.
The first, Will Proudfoot (Milner), is a child of a very religious
family who hides himself in his drawings and ideas, he is not very
sociable, and constantly longs for his father, who had passed away
from an aneurysm. The other, Lee Carter (Poulter), is a troublemaker
and a petty thief who gets bullied by his older brother and peers,
his difficult personality is probably due to the lack of parental
control in his life, his mother is rarely home, and his father is
gone. These two unlikely friends meet in the school hallway while
both are outside of their classes. Will, because his class is
watching a video and he is not allowed to watch television, and Lee,
because he got kicked out of class. They fight, they get in trouble,
and soon become friends with the plan to make a “Son Of Rambow”
movie. Along the way they run into the usual snags, getting into
trouble, other kids wanting to take part in the film and bickering
amongst themselves. This adventure becomes a bonding experience,
turning opposites into friends.
 |
| Proudfoot works on his artistry skills. |
The
acting is below average, at times it is over the top and at times it
is just ok. However, they are children, and maybe I should not judge
them so harshly. The plot is mostly predictable, and it is very slow.
It takes so long for them to get to the point where they start
actually making the movie. As well, it is not so funny, at all. Sure,
there were a few funny jokes, and there was a montage that was
humorous, but there is not enough for a so-called “comedy”.
After
watching the movie, I went and watched the theatrical trailer, and I
noticed that it is extremely deceiving! The trailer is nothing like
the movie itself, it makes it seem as though it is about these two
boy who plan to make a movie, word spreads, and soon everyone wants
to get involved and eventually they become the centre of attention at
school. Sure this comes in at some point, but, as I have shown above,
this is not at all what the movie is about.
 |
| Get back in frame! |
Also,
I could not help but notice that when Didier Revol (Sitruk) was
around, there were subtle homoerotic undertones. I could be wrong,
but a guy having guy groupies, and lacking interest in kissing girls,
could be constituted as homoeroticism. It is not a bad thing in the
slightest, it is just funny to note.
On
the plus side, the art direction was very pretty. The concept of
bringing his paintings to life was kind of neat. As well, the movie
had the adorable factor. Although it was cheesy, there were still
moments of cuteness that made the movie a little more bearable.
However, these pros do not do much in salvaging a predictable, boring
movie.
