It's difficult for me to be objective about Hammer and Tongs' second major motion picture, Son of Rambow. At one time, I was its protagonists, a kid whose imagination was set on fire by the bombast of media in the 1980s. Like Garth Jennings, Nick Goldsmith and their pre-pubescent proxies, the political subtext of Reagan-era action was completely lost on me at that age, eclipsed by the catharsis of violent fantasy and superheroics. It's impossible for me to watch Son of Rambow away from my intimacy with its subjects, so certain parts of it that I know aren't necessarily good filmmaking still strike me as wonderful.
Will Poulter, a ceaselessly creative child whose widowed mother is a member of the Plymouth Brethren, does not watch television and has never seen a movie because of religious restrictions. The Plymouth Brethren have also kept Will from making any friends, even though he attends a school full of "outsiders." Lee Carter, another fatherless boy who's something of a Calvin without a Hobbes, sees a patsy when he first meets Will, a willing stunt double for his homemade film. It's through Lee that Will sees First Blood, and Sly Stallone's one-man-war changes the boy for good, inspiring him to make Lee's movie into something grand. What follows is a story about finding your first true friend, colored, literally and tonally, by the warmth that is fast becoming a trademark for Hammer & Tongs. Son of Rambow is strongest when it stays with Lee and Will and is paced well thanks to its hilarious subplot surrounding French exchange student Didier Revol. Where it falters is in its portrayal of Will's family life. Will's mother, though played well by Jessica Hynes, remains underdeveloped given the time that's spent with her character. Her budding relationship with a would-be suitor ends up a distraction from Will's growth instead of a counterpoint.
It'd be easy to focus on these stray missteps throughout Rambow were I not so close to its story and characters; I could find fault in its sentimentality and easy solutions to complex emotional situations. It would also be easy to just be taken up by its nostalgic swells and portrayal of innocence. But the film is made with too much care and good humor to fall to either extreme. Messrs Hammer and Tongs have made a movie that may speak directly to me, but its foundation will speak to anyone. We were all children, and we all dreamed big.