Son of Rambow

I imagine like many who come to watch this film, there is much in it that echoes the childhood I pretend I had. Entire worlds erected in the imagination, fueled (rather than hindered which is no doubt closer to the truth) by things seen through the television, warm summer days spent flirting with blunt force trauma in the name of homage.

There are a couple of weighty barriers to capturing the essence of childhood on film, the essential wonder of it, chief among them the general standard of acting among the young. In this regard The Son of Rambow rather comes up trumps, having not one but two apparently perfectly cast kids in the leading roles. Will is an impossibly naive child with a vivid imagination who's only exposure to television is First Blood while his friend and opposite Lee Carter is a street wise delinquent with an excellent mouth.

Set somewhere in the eighties, the two set out to make Will's Rambo charged dreams a reality with a video camera borrowed from Lees older asshole brother. Their movie within a movie (in which the two manage to act acting terribly) becomes increasing elaborate, involving more and more of the student body and driving a wedge into their fledgling friendship.

It's all enormously sweet. Childish but in an entirely positive way, naive and slightly magical. Their friendship is bizarre but somehow entirely believable. It's surprisingly intricate with various subplots and tangents, and it manages to find pay offs in all of them. The conclusion to the french exchange student story is particularly wonderful. While it does has it's moments, usually from the mouth of Carter, it's not the funniest of comedies, but I'm not sure that was ever it's intent. It's subtlety charming and disarmingly obscure.

While I'm sure I would have still believed it to be strong without, it really appealed to several of my senses for nostalgia. Being of a similar age at a similar time, and having spent much of my youth toying with camera equipment and/or daydreaming in fields, it was terribly pleasing to discover a film made by people who clearly shared my wistful affections for such things.