There are three main problems with 'Son Of Rambow.' The first is that the whole film looks as if it were shot by two eleven year old children, and not just the scenes where this is intentionally the case. The second main problem is that the majority of the dialogue sounds as though it were written by two eleven year olds. The third is that the comedy in the film is entirely unfunny, unless you happen to be an eleven year-old. Aside from those minor issues, 'Son Of Rambow' is great. Yeah.
The story involves, rather unsurprisingly, two eleven year old boys named Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) and Lee Carter (Will Poulter) who begin as polar opposites of each other. Proudfoot is overly introverted due to his upbringing at the hands of a religion known for being extremely isolated from the rest of society. His only form of entertainment comes from his own imagination, which finds its form through drawings. Carter on the other hand has no such controlling factor in his life and is frequently shown to have a problem with authority and breaks the law for fun, like making pirated copies of films such as 'First Blood' and 'First Blood Part II.' His real passion lies in film-making. Guess who sees the films for the first time, has his imagination stimulated beyond anything he'd previously thought possible and storyboards a sequel to 'First Blood' with an aim to act it out? And speculate who has been conveniently looking for a story to film in order to send it off to a national young filmmakers' competition. That's the story. Two resourceful boys make a film, enduring much laughter and hardship along the way.
Being an indie film, it has to include a number of ridiculous and surreal secondary characters, the foremost of which is a French exchange student who is so cool (read: is a transvestite) that schoolgirls line up to beg to be inseminated by him. Predictably, he becomes the star of Proudfoot and Carter's film, but is finally shown to be a dick following an ostentatious set piece that would never happen in real life. Carter's brother on the other hand is the exact opposite of the French kid, being a dick by bullying Carter throughout the film but gaining redemption by the end. There are plenty of other superfluous morons, including a science teacher who commits a number of un-hilarious pratfalls such as stabbing himself in the nose with a pair of scissors or falling over/screaming comically, Proudfoot's entire family (his disabled Grandmother does not, despite what director Garth Jennings believes, evoke feelings of pity for the sister, the mother or Proudfoot himself) and the villainous member of the religious sect who tries to muscle his way in as 'new father figure and mother servicer' in Proudfoot's family.
A few positive points can be taken from Son Of Rambow. Bill Milner and Will Poulter both give compelling performances throughout, with the one exception of the scene involving shouting at each other, because it sounds as though both actors are practising reading through their lines for the first time. The compilation of Sylvester Stallone clips as a truculent Rambo is welcome in any film and should possibly be made compulsory. Finally, the focus on religion as the root of evil in the story is a brave and somewhat novel move in a film of this kind. So congratulations on cutting through the saccharine and piquing my interest once, Garth Jennings.
In conclusion, by all means watch this if you are, or have the mentality of, an eleven year old boy. It'll give you some great ideas on what to do during a slow summer's day. Also, if you've been struck by uncontrollable giggles, just give Son Of Rambow a look and they'll stop immediately. They actually might not come back for the rest of your life.
