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Review: Son of Rambow (2007) ★★

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Being wholesome does not automatically make a work of fiction praiseworthy&semi; in fact&comma; it generally belies any sense of ambiguity or style&period; The plots are more likely to be sterile&comma; leaning on the clear-cut dichotomy of Good versus Evil&comma; with moral judgements free of any conflicting interpretations&period; In Garth Jennings’ <em>Son of Rambow<&sol;em>&comma; things are exactly as they seem&comma; and the only contradictions arise from the scattershot plot construction&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Will Proudfoot &lpar;Bill Milner&rpar; is a shy young boy whose mother&comma; Mary &lpar;Jessica Hynes&rpar;&comma; belongs to a local religious sect&period; He is forbidden from watching television and is generally kept from socializing with his peers&period; However&comma; when Will becomes entangled with the school’s resident ne’er-do-well&comma; Lee &lpar;Will Poulter&rpar;&comma; the two form an unlikely bond&period; Lee enlists Will to act and help film his recreation of Sylvester Stallone’s action movie&comma; <i>Rambo&period; <&sol;i>Though Will wants to keep their activities a secret so as not to upset his mother&comma; the entire school becomes involved after popular French exchange student&comma; Didier Revol &lpar;Jules Sitruk&rpar;&comma; agrees to star in the film&period; However&comma; Will’s exposure with the rest of the students leads to his meteoric rise in social rank&comma; a change which strains his relationship with Lee&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The thing that is most striking about <em>Son of Rambow<&sol;em> is that&comma; despite being such a conventionally-made film&comma; it is somewhat hard to follow&period; It wants to be quirky&comma; with over-the-top archetypes and unrealistic hijinks&comma; but these just make it seem even less plausible and distract from the more important events&period; The story is based around the recreation of <i>Rambo<&sol;i>&comma; but it is never fully explained why they decided to remake that particular film&comma; other than just being bored and in need of a distraction&period; The entire filming of <em>Rambo<&sol;em> actually feels out of place&comma; and is rendered unimportant in the second half of the film&comma; before coming back into prominence at the very end&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1466" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1466" style&equals;"width&colon; 857px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1466" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;07&sol;2800756568&lowbar;3629b9420a-300x125&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"857" height&equals;"357" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1466" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Son of Rambow &lpar;2007&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">In the film&comma; characters are introduced quickly&comma; and it is assumed that we will immediately care about them&comma; despite having no reason to feel that way&period; Subplots and characters seem to materialize out of nowhere and then disappear just as quickly&period; Didier’s inclusion in the film is little more than a distraction&comma; while Lee’s relationship with his older brother is only touched on&comma; but becomes important later in the story&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">What makes <em>Son of Rambow<&sol;em> even harder to enjoy is the lack of direction&period; The film wants to produce nostalgia for a simpler time&comma; when children could have fun in the great outdoors all day without adult supervision&period; It is marketed to older&comma; conservative adults&comma; but formatted like a nonsensical children’s story&comma; so it is unclear who <em>Son of Rambow<&sol;em> is meant for&period; In principle&comma; it should also appeal to <em>Rambo<&sol;em> fans&comma; but so little effort is put into the <em>Rambo<&sol;em> storyline that it would disappoint that crowd as well&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Like so many films of this kind&comma; there are lessons to be learned&period; They are overly simplistic lessons&comma; and the filmmakers have no problem beating us over the head with them&colon; people from different backgrounds can become friends&comma; wholesome&comma; childhood friendships can be made complicated due to petty jealousy&comma; religion is good&comma; but too much religion can be bad&comma; loyalty to friends and family is more important than anything else in the world&comma; and so on&period; It teaches us nothing of substance and makes no great intellectual leaps for the sake of its message&comma; instead relying on tried and true platitudes and traditional values&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>Son of Rambow<&sol;em> is comforting in the way that predictable&comma; sentimental&comma; nostalgic feel-good movies are&comma; but these kinds of stories have been so overdone that they have lost all credibility for me&period; I get little pleasure from watching a film whose story is a foregone conclusion&period; The soundtrack instructs us on how to feel at every moment&comma; the characters behave in accordance with their assigned archetype&comma; and the story&comma; despite jumping from one subplot to the next&comma; takes no risks&period; There are some who will be able to overlook its shortcomings and enjoy a conventional retelling of an unlikely friendship&comma; but for everyone else&comma; there is nothing to see here&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">Rating&colon; <&sol;span><span class&equals;"s2">&starf;&starf;<&sol;span><span class&equals;"s1"> out of 5<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>Son of Rambow<&sol;em> is available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B001JDQQ46&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B001JDQQ46&amp&semi;linkId&equals;2a3512499353f920461915012716ce93"><u>here<&sol;u><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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