'Nowhere Boy' tunes in to a young Lennon

We're so used to thinking of the Beatles and John Lennon as finished products.

How refreshing, then, to go back before the beginning with “Nowhere Boy and see Lennon as a brilliant brat. A lusty, angry, quixotic, defiant, naive and yearning kid, without all the baggage that musical canonization placed on the guy's shoulders.

Sure, things that were little incidents at the time Lennon's first meetings with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, or his mom showing him how to play banjo become momentous for the audience, knowing the musical revolution that this boy will help orchestrate.

Yet first-time director Sam Taylor-Wood and her collaborators do a lovely job carving out this formative slice of Lennon's life, without mythologizing or hanging a nascent halo around the youngster's head. The story flows so organically that when the tragedy that shattered the young Lennon finally occurs, it's a shock to the audience, though even passing Beatles fans know it's coming.

At times an eerie look-alike, Aaron Johnson makes a wonderful teen John, capturing a mischievous rebel and a pained youth torn between the stern aunt who raised him and the sparkling mother who inspired him.

“Nowhere Boy came out a year ago in Britain, where it deservedly brought British Academy Awards nominations for Kristin Scott Thomas as Lennon's Aunt Mimi and Anne-Marie Duff as his mom, Julia.

“Nowhere Boy follows John from 1955 through his departure five years later for Hamburg, Germany, where the Beatles honed their music in marathon club gigs.

At 15, John is presented as a whip-smart but unruly tough, living with beloved Uncle George (David Threlfall) and Scott Thomas' Mimi. Amid a war of wills with Mimi, John rediscovers his flighty mum, Julia, who had given him up as a young boy, setting Lennon off on a lifetime of abandonment issues he explored in his music.

Yet for John in his mid-teens, Duff's passionate, impulsive Julia becomes a muse, turning him on to music.

“Nowhere Boy could have devolved into a superficial tug-of-war between Mimi and Julia. But Scott Thomas and Duff create full-blooded portraits of the two women, each capable, in her own way, of bottomless love, petty spite and everything in between.

The moments that often resonate the most, though, are the Beatles moments. The re-creation of his early band's first gig is a small thrill to watch. And while Thomas Brodie Sangster initially is jarring as McCartney, given that he bears no resemblance to young Paul, it's fun to see the first two Beatles bonding.

“Nowhere Boy may not offer new insights. But it's a sweet and touching love story to Lennon.

'Nowhere Boy'

<p>Rating: ★ ★ ★</p>

<p>Starring: Aaron Johnson, Kristen Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff, Thomas Brodie Sangster</p>

<p>Directed by: Sam Taylor-Wood</p>

<p>Other: A Weinstein Co. release. Rated R for language, sexual situations. 98 minutes.</p>