This biopic of John Lennon, taking his story from his schooldays in Liverpool up until the departure of the nascent Beatles for Hamburg, is an exceptional movie, quite the best I have seen during 2009. The story is beautifully handled from beginning to end and the acting from the three main leads is superb. Aaron Johnson manages to portray Lennon's mixture of cockiness (in more ways than one!),aggression, painful vulnerability, bewilderment and sheer adolescent verve with great sureness of touch. We watch Lennon developing from school-kid into knowing young man, and we literally see a different face at the end of the movie to the one we did at the start. Superb playing by Johnson, brilliantly assisted by that of Kristin Scott Thomas as his Aunt Mimi and Anne-Marie Duff as his mother, Julia. It would have been all too easy to lapse into cliché with this story but this is largely avoided. We get glimpses of Liverpool - an opening on the steps of St George's Hall, a fleeting glimpse of Strawberry Fields, a shot of a ferry on the Mersey - but these glimpses are all we need. And the movie closes not with a rendition of an all too predictable 'Nowhere Man' but a beautifully performed 'In Spite of All the Danger'. They say it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock n' roll; in Nowhere Boy we can see where it, and we, all began.

It was very interesting to see a biopic focusing on icon John Lennon's early life, or shall we say teenage years, rather than his climb to fame with The Beatles. While not one of the best biopics out there, 'Nowhere Boy' luckily is the opposite of the film's title.

'Nowhere Boy' has its flaws. The exposition in the final act is rather clunky, and some of the drama gets over-sentimental and melodramatic, also somewhat over-heated. While Sam Taylor-Wood doesn't do a bad job directing there is a little too much of a measured approach when it could have been tighter. That it is very inaccurate wasn't as big a problem for me, biopics are not exactly known for their accuracy and many have done far worse jobs.

However, the period is very evocatively rendered and done justice by photography that has style and grit. The music is great.

There are some thoughtful moments in the script, and there is a nice balance of moments of poignant drama and pop history. The story is often engrossing and is pretty illuminating, not really making the mistake of saying little new that we don't know already.

Aaron Johnson is highly credible as Lennon and more than holds his own against the more experienced actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff. Scott Thomas in particular is marvellous and Duff is a fine contrast.

Overall, pretty good and interesting. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Aaron Johnson plays the exceedingly vulnerable and budding talented John Lennon in his teen years in Nowhere Boy. This is the story of a young man who glimpsed at the life that Elvis Presley was leading and decided this was for him. Whatever the cost he was not going to be the Nowhere Man he later wrote about.

I remember the early years of the Beatles invasion and if you recall the Fab Five were as carefully packaged as bubblegum teen idols back in those early days. I remember reading back then that John Lennon had been raised by an aunt because his mother had been killed in a traffic accident. To say the least that was certainly a bare bones outline of the events.

When Lennon's father moved out John was raised by Aunt Sylvia and Uncle George played by Kristin Scott-Thomas and David Threlfell. I'm sorry that Threlfell dies early on in the film because we see too little of him, but Scott-Thomas who is the sister of his mother continues to raise him with a loving, but strict hand. Then mother, played by Anne-Marie Duff reenters the picture and the young John Lennon is conflicted to say the least. What goes on between the two sisters and young John is the basis of the story.

The two women have some great parts and we do see Lennon forming his first band called The Quarry Men. Pictures of them at the time will show them trying to imitate American rock and rollers. It was only later that they got the distinctive Beatle look that we all remember.

If you want to continue the story, I highly recommend following this film up with Stephen Dorff's Backbeat which takes the story up where Nowhere Boy leaves off. One thing I did not understand is where Stuart Sutcliffe who was the lead character in Backbeat and Pete Best the original drummer were. They both knew and were involved with Lennon in the early Liverpool years.

I think fans of John Lennon will be pleased with Nowhere Boy and with Aaron Johnson's portrayal of their idol.