Son of Rambow (2007)

Directed by: Garth Jennings | 96 minutes | drama, comedy, family | Actors: Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jules Sitruk, Charlie Thrift, Neil Dudgeon, Jessica Hynes, Anna Wing, Tallulah Evans, Sam Kubrick-Finney, Emilie Chesnais, Paul Ritter, Finola McMahon, Rachel Mureatroyd, Taylor Richardson, Peter Robinson, James Clarke, Zofia Brooks, Denise Orita, Eric Sykes, Ed Westwick

Although ‘Son of Rambow’ is only the second feature film by Englishman Garth Jennings, we are not dealing with a novice here. With comrade Nick Goldsmith, Jennings has been forming the creative duo Hammer and Tongs for many years, which has made great video clips for Blur (‘Coffee and TV’) and Supergrass (‘Pumping on your Stereo’, among others). With ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ Jennings made a reasonable feature film debut, although the film never reached the level of the clips. ‘Son of Rambow’ comes a lot closer.

Unlike ‘The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy’, the quality of ‘Son of Rambow’ is not in the story. Two very young high school students and their plan to make a remake of Rambo sounds promising but turns out not to be very exciting in practice. That new version of Rambo is more like a running gag, albeit a very funny one. ‘Son of Rambow’ mainly wants to paint a picture of the era of the early 1980s. In addition, the film is about friendship, family and religion.

‘Son of Rambow’ manages to say something about all these subjects, although it doesn’t add much to what has already been said in recent family films like ‘Millions’ or ‘The Water Horse’. The portrayal of the 80s is hilarious and recognizable, but also a bit superficial. We see a lot of silly hairstyles, we hear a lot of chilly music, but we don’t find the pessimistic and tired character of that time here.

What makes the film above average are the visual games, the funny finds and the endearing main characters. Those characters are also excellently played by a couple of inexperienced and very young actors, of whom Bill Millner especially impresses as the outsider Will Proudfoot.

With the small-scale, semi-autobiographical ‘Son of Rambow’, Jennings seems to have chosen a project that is closer to his heart than the remarkably tame ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. The result promises a lot for the future.