Son Of Rambow

Son of Rambow recaptures an era when director Garth Jennings was himself a child discovering the joys of video recorders, and, in hindsight at least, bad clothes and bad music. It’s the tale of naïve young Plymouth Brethren boy, Will (Bill Milner), falling under the influence of the troubled school trouble-maker, Lee Carter (Will Poulter). Following Will’s first encounter with television (banned to the Brethren) and a pirate copy of First Blood, he is roped into helping Lee’s attempt to win the BBC’s Screen Test competition.

Jennings and his producer Goldsmith were working on this obviously personal project for some time, before being distracted by directing/producing the hit-and-miss Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005). On returning to the project, reminiscent of elements of Gondry’s Science Of Sleep, emotional honesty is the key thread in a simple journey through adolescent trust, betrayal, reconciliation guided by a decidedly British sense of humour. The two boys, particularly Bill Milner, have strong natural talent whilst  Jessica Stevenson adds a welcome understated touch playing Will’s mother with appropriate gravity. Trivia spotters may be interested that Kubrick’s grandson has a supporting role as Danny, and the Screen Test winner is Jan Pinkava, recently co-director of Ratatouille.

Jennings and Goldsmith are music video collaborators and have picked a number of extravagant '80s classics, but overall the film’s visuals are surprisingly sedate. This serves the story well, serving to accentuate the occasional cinematic flourishes. As Will’s imagination becomes more fevered, animated imagery blends into the frame and a scarecrow in a field comes to dramatic life as the film-within-a-film’s villain. The simulated-VHS scenes of Will and Lee’s film have a fantastic fluorescing colour saturation, belying the subdued colours of the English countryside which is making do as the boy’s tropical jungle.

The filming of the opus grows ever more epic, as an old man (Eric Sykes in a cameo) at the local nursing home is called on to perform, followed by the cool new French exchange student and finally, it seems, much of the school wants to be stars. It all leads to climactic final scenes, with comic behind-the-camera action followed by a touch of cathartic, admittedly-sentimental tragedy and reunion. I could easily visualise an anecdote I read of Jennings behind the camera as a child, filming a shed on fire by waving a piece of burning paper in front of the lens, with the camera recording boyish glee – “This is brilliant, brilliant!” Decades later, he’s captured that same sense of fun with a deft touch.

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