Boys who need their dads
SON OF RAMBOW Cert. 12A Director: Garth Jennings
There is more than one kind of dysfunctional family. In this British film, Lee Carter is a classic naughty boy with a classic naughty boy’s face. He is the bane of school teachers and we first meet him when he is ejected from the classroom for misbehaviour.
Sitting drawing outside another classroom door is Will, a Plymouth Brethren boy, excluded because the rest of his class are watching a geography video and he is not allowed to watch TV of any kind. These two form an unholy alliance, driven by mischief on the part of Lee and fear on the part of Will. Will gets drawn into Lee’s film-making project (for BBC’s old Screen Test). It is the early 1980s and young imaginations are stirred by Sylvester Stallone’s film Rambo.
Secret life
Will, though strictly brought up and generally well behaved, has a secret life of the imagination fuelled by the early death of his father. Lee, having been largely abandoned by both his parents, is cared for in the loosest sense of that word by his feckless elder brother. His parents own an old people’s home which also provides accommodation for the two brothers, but they themselves are permanently on holiday in Spain. There is an excellent cameo appearance by the wonderful and ageing comic actor Eric Sykes as one of the residents of the old people’s home.
Both Lee and Will are needy. Will is desperate for an outlet for his imagination and freedom to grieve for his father and find adventures. His narrow upbringing teaches him to be furtive. Lee is almost feral in his attitudes to people and property. But the film exposes his longing for love and it is he, not Will, who reveals genuine faithfulness. He is not less vulnerable than Will.
The film is both ridiculous and tender. If you go to see it, be prepared to laugh and cry. It holds a lesson for parents who exercise tight control and focus only on external compliance. ‘Bad’ children and ‘good’ children alike need love. They also need not only boundaries but space to exercise their imaginations and independence so that they can learn to use them well. Watch and learn.
