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Thursday 4 December 2008

Two little boys

Son of Rambow
12A, nationwide

Son of Rambow is the tale of two young boys — one from a strict religious background; the other a troubled troublemaker — who come together to shoot a backyard version of Rambo: First Blood to enter it into the BBC’s Screen Test competition. It is a British film, set in some English suburb in the early Eighties, and it is chock-a-block with all the things that usually make films like this work very happily indeed: slapstick; fantasy; derring-do; friendship; getaways on bicycles and scrappy underdogs triumphing over horrid adults. It’s mostly a kids’ film, but it also has its eye on cinema-accompanying parents with oodles of Eighties nostalgia, including Space Dust, jump suits, Swing Ball, scented erasers and those first mobile phones the size of your head. So it has everything except ...well ...any real or convincing charm. I didn’t mind Son of Rambow. It just didn’t bother me either way. Yes, OK, heart in the right place and all that, and leave off, Ross, because what’s next on your To Do list today? Drowning kittens? Well, as it happens, I did drown some kittens just last week and you know what? Nothing to it. Walk in the park.

So, to the two boys, who are William Proudfoot (Bill Milner) and Lee Carter (Will Poulter). Will, whose family is Plymouth Brethren, wears wholesome knits, prays a lot and is not allowed to watch TV or films. He spends most of his time in his garden shed illustrating his Bible with intricate little drawings. Lee, on the other hand, is a spiky-haired terror who smokes, curses and records inappropriate films at the cinema to sell on as pirate videos. Both boys are fatherless. Will’s father is dead while Lee’s scarpered before he was even born. Lee’s home is attached to the old people’s home owned by his mum’s boyfriend, with whom she has buggered off to Spain. Lee is looked after by a bullying older brother, while Will has his mother, played by Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson; fat Cheryl in The Royle Family), wearing a headscarf as well as a wide face that always looked pained.

More articles from: Deborah Ross | this section

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