Son of Rambow--Sundance Review

Pairing very Britishly dry humor with a light-hearted exuberance, Son of Rambow takes what could've been a gimmicky premise and turns it into a highly original comic adventure tale.

Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a sweet-faced little boy whose membership in the austere Plymouth Brethren denomination separates him from his peers. Sent out into the hallway because he's not allowed to watch movies, not even the educational kind shown in class, Will encounters bully Lee Carter (Will Poulter) who rooks him out of his dead father's watch, then invites him over to play. At Lee Carter's, Will sees his first movie ever--Rambo: First Blood, which Lee Carter is ambitiously remaking in the hopes of winning a contest for young filmmakers. Will transforms himself into the Son of Rambow, filling his notebook with absurd cartoons of his travails to defeat the Scarecrow and rescue his father. When Lee Carter discovers Will's notebook, he knows he has his storyboards--and his star.

Milner's shy openness recalls young Craig Warnock, who played Kevin in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, and it's the lack of guile or irony in his performance that carries this film to heights of both comic genius and genuine emotion. Lee Carter, on the other hand, comes off at first as knowing and arrogant, but as the layers strip away Poulter shows the innocence at his character's core as well. The friendship the two boys forge is simply lovely. Even haughty, cooler-than-you French exchange student Didier, who uses his rock-star status at school to get a part in the movie, gets to show his sweet side. There isn't a single character in Son of Rambow who isn't fully three-dimensional.

Son of Rambow's set pieces are brilliantly constructed, a standout being the 6th Form common room envisioned as an 80s nightclub, complete with bouncer and Depeche Mode. Lee Carter watches Will become wrapped up in his newfound celebrity and steps outside to get some fresh air. As he sits at the top of the steps, the door flies open and a kid who's been doing Pop Rocks and Coke bursts out to puke over the railing, and the look on Lee Carter's face is familiar to anyone who's ever had a bad night out that lasted far too long.

For all its farce, Son of Rambow aspires to be a lot more than just another Rushmore, and it achieves it in spades. Hammer & Tongs, who produced Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, is behind Son of Rambow, and the film has its share of inventive visuals, though never to the detriment of the story being told.