Sundance 2007

Son of Rambow

 (U.K.)

For writer-director Garth Jennings and production outfit Hammer and Tongs, the slightly subversive attitude and whimsical tone of their underrated "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" has been preserved in the new film, but reduced in volume, while previous pic's Wellesian joy of using a studio as a giant toy store is moderated to fit a more Earthbound story.

Jennings' early '80s tale involves two kids who couldn't be more opposite: subdued, well-mannered Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner), raised in a strict household governed by a religious sect; and wild child Lee Carter (Will Poulter), a terror in the classroom and bossed around only by his older brother while his wealthy parents are out of the country. (It turns out Will also has a talent for elaborately imaginative sketching -- recalling, though in a much lighter manner, a similar technique in Sarah Watt's "Look Both Ways.")

The boys' differences cleverly come together in a school hallway when Will, barred from watching television even in class and so excused until the session is over, comes into aggressive contact with Lee, booted into the hallway by his teacher.

What seems to be a standard case of a bully boy having his way with a naif becomes something more whimsical when Lee recruits Will as an actor in his homemovie, "Son of Rambow," inspired -- despite the misspelling -- by "Rambo: First Blood."A series of wildly risky stunts involving catapults and tall tree branches that Will's all too happy to pull off for Lee's clunky video camera is almost too exaggerated for its own good, but also can be seen as Will rebelling against his oppressive upbringing -- a home life made worse when one of the religious brethren (Neil Dudgeon) inserts himself into Will's home life as a substitute dad and tries to put the moves on his single mom (Jessica Stevenson).

Meanwhile a busload of French exchange students arrive for the semester. Amid the pimply faced young Gauls, self-consciously chic Didier (Jules Sitruk) stands out, attracting an admiring posse.

The Huck-and-Tom quality of "Son of Rambow" becomes complicated when Didier's group assumes control of the movie, and Lee is revealed to be a lonely outsider whom the rest of the student body despises. In the late phases of his script, Jennings seems under pressure to wrap up as many loose ends as possible by the 90-minute mark, rather than simply allowing them to naturally unfold.

But since the engagingly serious Milner and spunky Poulter are such an engaging pair, the early charms of "Son of Rambow" aren't compromised.

Sitruk at first suggests a standard Brit-inflected stereotype of the above-it-all Frenchie, but shows -- like Poulter's Lee -- that he's a loner having to act out to be noticed. Back home, Stevenson plays Will's quietly suffering mother like a woman from the 17th century.

As to be expected from Hammer and Tongs, bright and witty physical and visual touches spill off the screen, though the use of effects is scaled to the tale. An ominous nuclear power plant calls to mind how they were the object of intense controversy and concern in the '80s, but Jess Hall's lensing is more bucolic than moody. Joby Talbot's score is too loud and insistent, goosing the movie when it doesn't need it.

Camera (Technicolor, widescreen), Jess Hall; editor, Dominic Leung; music, Joby Talbot; production designer, Joel Collins; art director, Robyn Paiba; costume designer, Harriet Cawley; sound, Guillaume Sciama, Joseph Park-Stracey; visual effects supervisors, Jon Hollis, Sean Mathiesen; visual effects, Switch Prods.; animation, Paul Heasman; stunt coordinator, Paul Heasman; associate producers, Christian Baute, Michel Reilhac, Peter Nadermann, Meinolf Zurhorst; casting, Susie Figgis. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 23, 2007. Running time: 95 MIN.
 

With: Anna Wing, Ed Westwick, Adam Godley, Adam Buxton, Eric Sykes.
(English, French dialogue)