Talk about the stars aligning. Writer/director Garth Jennings ( The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ) has struggled for seven years to bring his hilariously funny and affecting script, Son of Rambow , to the big screen. Then Sylvester Stallone goes and resurrects his (other) iconic character providing him with some free advertising and a tidy little tie-in. Not that a movie as wonderful as this should need anything to help it find an audience.
An instant five-star classic, Rambow is the story of Will (Bill Milner), the eldest son of a fatherless Plymouth Brethren family. Living a sheltered and lonely existence, Will is not allowed to mix with non-Brethren kids, listen to music or watch TV. That is until he crosses paths with the naughty but lovable rogue, Lee Carter (Will Poulter). An early purveyor of pirate cinema, Carter's latest offering is Rambo: First Blood and when Will's overly active imagination is accidentally exposed to its bombastic action, his world is changed forever.
Initially putting his body in peril as the stunt man for Carter's spontaneous Screentest venture (in a side-splitting montage sequence), Will's wild imagination and storyboarded sequel Son of Rambow soon persuades Carter to change direction and leads them to forming an unlikely friendship as their guerrilla-style film comes together.
An eccentric visual masterpiece along the lines of a Michel Gondry creation, Son of Rambow features a perfectly-realised 80s period setting–thanks to some nostalgic product placement, costumes and make-up, some memory-stirring music and some seriously massive mobile phones–several scenes of fabulously inventive and interactive animations—as Will's imagination goes into overdrive–and, of course, the Garth Marenghi-style acted and shot short movie itself.
Written with real heart and soul—and purportedly based on some of Jennings' real-life childhood experiences—this sweet story of growing pains will stir you to your emotional core while bringing out your innocent inner child. If it doesn't then you're surely dead inside. One only worries that Rambow is so good that so early into Jennings' big screen career (this is only his sophomore effort) he might never manage to equal, let alone top, such a visual and lingual piece of perfection.
That's effusive—but in no way hyperbolic—praise even before you mention the two debuting child actors at the centre of this masterpiece. Naturalistic to the point of wondering whether they're even acting at all, the Freddie Highmore-alike ( Finding Neverland ) Milner is a revelation as Will, cutting a sympathetic lead who will undoubtedly have you rooting for him from the very first scene in his shed hideaway. He's fantastic. But Poulter is even better; his cheeky chappie owns the screen and steals every scene he's in. A boy dealing with a man's issues, you can almost imagine Carter as a younger version of the River Phoenix character from Rob Reiner's seminal Stand By Me . Certainly we can comfortably draw parallels with the quality of acting work. High praise indeed.
An ode to friendship, childhood wonderment and the magic of movies, Son of Rambow is a beautiful, sentimental, heart warming, wholly original piece of film-making and a joy to behold. Just one thing Garth: you spelt Rambo wrong (sic).
Five stars out of five
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