What I am a fan of, however, is coming of age stories. That’s what really is at the heart of the film. A young man with severe and deep family issues connects to music through his mother, and to the world through music. Like August Rush with a ‘based on a true story’ tagline.

John (Aaron Johnson, from Kick-Ass), raised by his aunt (Kristin Scott Thomas) and uncle, becomes a handful when his uncle dies and he reconnects with his mother. He finds music, and within that music a sense of belonging. Family drama ensues and Lennon is left to grow up between two women, both believing they know what’s best for him. Most of the drama comes from these two relationships. Johnson does well enough as a delinquent Lennon, getting outshined a little by Scott Thomas who plays the somewhat prickly matriarch with gusto. There was a little something missing from the film as a whole, but I can’t put my finger on it, so I will just blindly warn you that something could use some tweaking.

Nowhere Boy is packed with what any die hard Beatles fan will tell you are many inaccuracies. However, if you put aside the true story, forget the legend, and think of it as just a story of a young man coming into his own, you might find it charming. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/Music

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 1/25/11

Stephan Elliott

The rest of the film depicts the war (the characters describe it in those terms) between Larita and her stuffy in-laws, a war fought as much with Coward’s trademark witticisms as with Machiavelli’s strategems. Kristin Scott-Thomas is fun to watch, but her character never really becomes much more than a vessel for sardonic derision. Biel has been called by many critics “too modern” for the role, but I think they miss the point, and her performance is quite subtle and even poignant at times. Firth is a pleasure to watch in anything he does, of course.

This adaptation has major flaws, however. It blasts its inappropriately jazzy soundtrack (one song seems to refer anachronistically to spy satellites) insistently, and the editing feels a bit sloppy in general. The whole affair seems a bit flighty at first–even, for brief moments, threatening to become a full-blown musical. But much like last year’s Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, it opens as a scatterbrained farce and closes on a more sober note. In between, it can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be a P.G. Wodehouse-esque drawing-room comedy or a Hemingway-esque world-weary tragedy. – [DVD]

Comedy/Romance

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 9/15/09

And it was a terrific film, featuring, to my mind, the best performance by any actress in 2008. Upon watching the film, it might not be obvious who I mean, since both lead actresses are wonderful. But Kristin Scott Thomas is devastating – reminding us how possible it is for good actors to be forgotten, without the right roles. I think she is remembered most for Four Weddings and a Funeral, but, if you haven’t seen it, be sure to rent Angels and Insects to see her at her rawest, emotionally.

In I’ve Loved You So Long, Scott Thomas plays a woman just released from a long prison term into the care of her adoring younger sister, expertly played by Elsa Zylberstein. She is dumbfounded by her younger sister’s accepting attitude, which is indeed based on childish memories. As an audience, we are further mystified by Scott Thomas’ personal history. Director Philippe Claudel chooses to enlighten us incrementally – certainly not a groundbreaking method in the mystery genre, but one that works with beautifully oiled gears here, thanks in large part to Scott Thomas’ subtly filigreed facial expressions.

I’m always wary when a film depends so heavily on one actor’s performance. I find myself imagining the film with a lesser actor, and by then I’ve lost interest. But in the case of I’ve Loved You So Long, the plot is so ingenious, and above all Kristin Scott Thomas’ performance is so towering, that all imagined quibbles simply fall away in the wake.

Drama/Mystery

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 3/3/09