Son of Rambow Review

Sadly it isn't often these days that you think of the word "original" when describing films with big box office appeal, but happily "Son of Rambow" is a big film that brings the word back. Written and directed by "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" helmsman Garth Jennings. This Brit comedy is a tribute to childhood, with all it's innocence, ingenuity and fearlessness combined.

It's the early 1980s and somewhere in London lives Lee Carter, a rambunctious 10-year-old who is raised by his older brother and obsessed with making a film about his hero Rambo. One day after being kicked out of class he meets his polar opposite, Will Proudfoot, strictly raised in a Brethren family and let out of his class because he is not allowed to watch documentaries. It isn't long before the two boys get into trouble and are sent to the headmaster's office. Carter see's that Will is a gullible kid and manipulates him to help make his film about Rambo, which he wants to enter in a young filmmaker's competition.

Will's filmmaking friendship with Lee Carter transforms the shy boy into "The Son of Rambo". Will never even watched television before seeing "Rambo: First Blood" and his vivid imagination works overtime as Rambo inspired images from his sketch book are brought to life in animation. While Lee Carter uses the residents of his family's retirement home as actors - including one convincingly wigged up Rambo lookalike.

Both boys become fearless, performing daring stunts and filming at school where the newly popular Will enlists the help of super-cool French exchange student Didier Revol. As the creativity soars, tensions arise between the boys, and Will's mother grows increasingly concerned that her son is spending too much time with people outside of the church.

What Garth Jennings and production partner Nick Goldsmith have made here is an all out tribute to the innocence and imagination of childhood. This is a fun film that is delicately laced with some more grown up issues to make it a good all rounder.