Son
of Rambow
Son of Rambow is a good mix of
funny and sad, even if it has some dull stretches along the way.
Bill Milner stars as Will – a young boy who loves to draw and
lives with a very religious family that does not encourage exposure to
the modern world. As a result, Will is not familiar with the same
movies, TV shows and music everyone around him takes for granted. One
day, he is removed from class when a movie is to be shown, and meets
Lee Carter (Will Poulter) – a young boy removed from class
because he is disruptive. The two soon start to hang out, and Lee
Carter accidentally shares his favorite movie, Rambo: First
Blood, with
Will, and it blows the sheltered kid’s mind.
 When Lee
Carter and Will team up to make their own version of Rambo,
will they be able to maintain their friendship and creative partnership
as everything around them changes?
Son of Rambow has a unique
combination of teary-eyed moments, nostalgia for kids of the
80’s, childhood magic, family drama and more. Writer/director
Garth Jennings re-creates a world seen through a child’s eyes
where great drama comes with a visit by French exchange students,
strife between a mother and son seems to be insurmountable, big
brothers are idols and more. It takes the audience back to the days
when anything seemed possible, and the world was a more mysterious and
dangerous place (for totally different reasons).
While Jennings takes a great deal of time to get to the plot, and could
use a bit more focus to help keep the story moving along, the last act
of Son of Rambow is fantastic. We have plenty of fun watching these two
spirited oddballs make a movie they love on a shoestring budget even
the most independent of moviemakers wouldn’t be able to
handle, and the little vignettes with the king of the French exchange
students are hilarious, but the last 20 – 30 minutes of the
movie are where Jennings shows us that he has been building up to those
climactic moments that will have you shocked, sad and exhilarated.
Son of Rambow is worth taking a chance on if you are looking for something different.
Son of Rambow is rated PG-13 for some violence and reckless behavior.
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