Everyone loves the Beatles, right? Well, just because you love the Beatles does not mean you will automatically love director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s “Nowhere Boy,” a chronicle of John Lennon’s formative years.
Maybe my view was tainted because I’m not a Lennon or Beatles obsessive. I know the basics, your “Imagine” from his solo career and chart-toppers like “Hey Jude” and “All You Need Is Love.” But I really haven’t invested much time in learning their history or going beyond the Beatles songs that everyone knows before they are aware that they know it.
So perhaps a Beatles neophyte fan such as myself missed some of the Easter Egg-style references. I caught a few of the blatant ones, but I still felt like I was missing something watching the movie.
I will tell you what I did not miss in “Nowhere Boy.” I definitely caught the lackluster performance of Aaron Johnson as Lennon, who has a way of sucking the life out of every movie he’s in, be it “Savages” or “Anna Karenina.” I absolutely noticed the lack of compelling drama, be it between his aunt who raised him (a nonetheless good Kristin Scott Thomas) and his biological mother (Anne-Marie Duff). I did, however, also hear some good music that kept my ears happy while the same could not be said for my eyes and my mind. C / 
