May 3, 2024
FILM: NOWHERE SPECIAL
DIRECTED BY: UBERTO PASOLINI
STARRING: JAMES NORTON, DANIEL LAMONT, CAROL MOORE
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The film Nowhere Special has been kicking around the globe for four years. It is only now getting a release in the U.S. Why? That’s a good question but the answer has nothing to do with the quality of this affecting drama and more about the state of the independent world market. There just aren’t enough distributors willing to take a chance on a film about a 34-year old man who is dying and must find a home for his small son. I know, it sounds really depressing. But it’s not as dark as one might think. Rather this is a film about the bond between a father and son that explores the warmth between them as well as the important task dad has at hand.
James Norton (Bob Marley: One Love, Little Women, Happy Valley) stars as John, a window cleaner and single parent who has only months to live. His son Michael is a quiet boy who enjoys washing his toy truck and spending time with his father. We learn pretty early on that John is sick by the prescribed drugs in his medicine cabinet along with his active goal of interviewing several potential parents. Michael is unaware of what these meetings are all about but as he travels with his father there is something in his eyes which suggests he knows on some level something is wrong.
Filmmaker Uberto Pasolini does a fantastic job of establishing the relationship bond that exists between John and Michael. Theirs is a solid if quiet connection. Michael isn’t one of those obnoxious or precocious kids we often see in films about children. There is not a lot of screaming or acting out. Michael is low-key and a bit unreactive to what is transpiring around him. It is a testament to Pasolini’s casting and directorial choices that most of what young actor Daniel Lamont does as Michael is happening under the surface. Whether he was told what the story was about is unknown but there is definitely a skill at keeping a boy that understated.
Norton is exceptional as John. He, too, gives a very internalized performance but we always understand what he is feeling and experiencing by the subtle expressions on his endlessly fascinating face. He’s also very good-looking, like a young Robert Redford, but is given a scruffy look which emphasizes the character’s less than glamourous moment in time.
What’s also interesting here is that John’s illness is not the focus. This isn’t one of those dramas in which the character coughs signaling the end is coming sooner than later. Rather the attention is drawn to the relationship and philosophical and logistical questions any parent might have to explore if they were in this situation: How do you tell your child that you are dying? Should you? How do you explain death at their level of understanding? How do you explain adoption? Pasolini handles these with great care and without a lot of melodrama.
There is a moment in the film when a hospital nurse replaces dead flowers with some fresh ones without batting an eye. Nowhere Special suggests that losing someone and finding a way to fill that void is a bit more complicated than a quick switch. Pasolini handles all of this sensitively and with a lot of compassion for the characters and the audience alike.
Nowhere Special is currently playing in limited theatrical release.
FILM: NOWHERE SPECIAL
DIRECTED BY: UBERTO PASOLINI
STARRING: JAMES NORTON, DANIEL LAMONT, CAROL MOORE
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The film Nowhere Special has been kicking around the globe for four years. It is only now getting a release in the U.S. Why? That’s a good question but the answer has nothing to do with the quality of this affecting drama and more about the state of the independent world market. There just aren’t enough distributors willing to take a chance on a film about a 34-year old man who is dying and must find a home for his small son. I know, it sounds really depressing. But it’s not as dark as one might think. Rather this is a film about the bond between a father and son that explores the warmth between them as well as the important task dad has at hand.
James Norton (Bob Marley: One Love, Little Women, Happy Valley) stars as John, a window cleaner and single parent who has only months to live. His son Michael is a quiet boy who enjoys washing his toy truck and spending time with his father. We learn pretty early on that John is sick by the prescribed drugs in his medicine cabinet along with his active goal of interviewing several potential parents. Michael is unaware of what these meetings are all about but as he travels with his father there is something in his eyes which suggests he knows on some level something is wrong.
Filmmaker Uberto Pasolini does a fantastic job of establishing the relationship bond that exists between John and Michael. Theirs is a solid if quiet connection. Michael isn’t one of those obnoxious or precocious kids we often see in films about children. There is not a lot of screaming or acting out. Michael is low-key and a bit unreactive to what is transpiring around him. It is a testament to Pasolini’s casting and directorial choices that most of what young actor Daniel Lamont does as Michael is happening under the surface. Whether he was told what the story was about is unknown but there is definitely a skill at keeping a boy that understated.
Norton is exceptional as John. He, too, gives a very internalized performance but we always understand what he is feeling and experiencing by the subtle expressions on his endlessly fascinating face. He’s also very good-looking, like a young Robert Redford, but is given a scruffy look which emphasizes the character’s less than glamourous moment in time.
What’s also interesting here is that John’s illness is not the focus. This isn’t one of those dramas in which the character coughs signaling the end is coming sooner than later. Rather the attention is drawn to the relationship and philosophical and logistical questions any parent might have to explore if they were in this situation: How do you tell your child that you are dying? Should you? How do you explain death at their level of understanding? How do you explain adoption? Pasolini handles these with great care and without a lot of melodrama.
There is a moment in the film when a hospital nurse replaces dead flowers with some fresh ones without batting an eye. Nowhere Special suggests that losing someone and finding a way to fill that void is a bit more complicated than a quick switch. Pasolini handles all of this sensitively and with a lot of compassion for the characters and the audience alike.
Nowhere Special is currently playing in limited theatrical release.