The most beautiful and tear jerking journey in a child’s world of make believe. The child in us interprets Rambo and the film character never looked so good
Director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith are known as the team of "Hammer & Tongs." Funny enough, for they are anything but evil as their previous “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” (2005) showed us all. Their follow up to “Hitchhiker” has all the makings of a great fantasy brought down to earth by the remarkable acting of amateur child actors Bill Milner, Will Poulter and Jules Sitruk.
The setting is 1980s England where a young man with an unbridled imagination is growing up in a much bridled atmosphere. Will (Bill Milner) is part of the Brethren community where he lives with his single mother and siblings. His mother is being watched over with a definitely salacious eye by Brethren elder Adam Godfrey who is very concerned about young Will’s, and his shapely mother’s, futures.
For one thing, the Brethren are peace loving people who restrict their brainless violence to where it does the most good, in their homes and churches. For young Will to be running around made up to look like Sylvester Stallone in the “Rambo” series creates a stir, to say the least. Will is forced to deal not only with his fantasy world, but the secrecy required to preserve his family’s home.
But that is not all Will has to worry about. Grade school bully Carter (Will Poulter) has it out for the frail lad, in a big way. Carter lives in a parentless home where his vagabond parents have left him and his older brother, also a bully, in charge of a dozen mentally incompetent wards of the state. Lucky for carter and Will, Carter’s older brother has a handi-cam. Stars are born.
Will has to think fast, he has to execute the kind of thinking that made movies what they are today. He bluffs. But then he offers Carter a job in pictures, which is sure fire. Soon the two have scrounged Carter’s older brother’s camera and are making their own action flicks with Will as the unthinking stunt man who usually ends up jumping off the cliff into the pond while Carter operates the camera. The two bond, each using the other for the common goal of getting on the silver screen.
But wait, this is just the beginning. When eccentric 6th grade French exchange student Didier (Jules Sitruk) joins the trio the fireworks start to explode with the ferocity of Vietnam land mines. The sparks rage out of control when the creative energies of the trio threaten the most important thing they have: offshore DVD royalties.
No, just kidding. It is their friendship that is threatened, and also Will’s family’s place in the Brethren settlement where Godley has uncovered Will’s footage of him running around like a loony heathen blasting imaginary enemies with his make-believe machine gun. What follows is a reconciliation in the heat of battle that leaves the three changed forever.
The camera work in this film has to take the audience into a child’s world. In fact, it has to BE a child’s word. Cinematographer Jess Hall does a great job of being the omniscient observer and the child behind the camera at the same time. His previous work includes the commendable real-life cop thriller “Stander” (2003) and the recently released “Hot Fuzz” with Simon Pegg.
A beautiful picture that does great things with fantasy. Entirely appropriate viewing for the whole family, although the children might need to counsel the adults after it is over.
Release: May 2, 2008
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