Nowhere Special: A Review

 

NOWHERE SPECIAL

Nowhere Special is a curious film in that we have a movie that technically is a four-year-old film that has spread slowly around the world, coming to the United States only now. Deeply moving, quiet, and told in a straightforward way, Nowhere Special is a beautiful film.

Belfast window washer John (James Norton) is a single father, his Russian-born partner having bolted back to Russia six months after their son Michael (Daniel Lamont) was born. John does his best to care for Michael, to whom he is a quiet and loving father. John, however, is dying of cancer, with precious little time left. Michael is unaware of how serious the situation is. He also does not question why John takes him to see so many people, mostly couples.

John, with the help of aid worker Shona (Eileen O'Higgins) is looking over prospective parents for Michael. They see wealthy couples, middle-class couples, a single mother and a mixed-race couple who have a mix of biological and foster children. All can offer Michael a good, caring home, are decent people and do want Michael. John, however, hesitates, wanting the very best for his son. John gets encouragement and advise from his own foster mother, Rosemary (Stella McCusker), who sadly is too old to repeat that job with Michael. With time fast running out, John must summon the courage to tell Michael about his own end and find the best person or people to take Michael.

After finishing Nowhere Special, I was reminded of another film about fathers and son and that deep bond between the two. Unlike the original The Champ, Nowhere Special does not involve sudden death but a gradual one. Like The Champ, however, Nowhere Special builds up its characters to where you do like them and become invested in their simple, specific stories. Writer/director Uberto Pasolini takes his time in building up the story, allowing us a chance to know who in specific John is.

John is like Nowhere Special as a whole is: quiet, gentle, steady. John is not flawless or perfect or even at times downright mean. In fairness, the only time John shows a negative side is when he goes back to a job with a very unpleasant client and throws eggs at the man's windows, even the former client's car. This is as gentle a revenge as John can find against a particular unpleasant person. However, this is probably the meanest anyone was in Nowhere Special. 

One element that elevates Nowhere Special is how ordinary and simple everyone is. As John and Shona visit each prospective family, none of them are either cartoonishly good or bad. They all get their specific moments where they talk about themselves and how they would be with Michael. Each of them is a good person, caring, understanding, willing to help. I think that reflects how people genuinely are in real life. Each of them has either had a child or been a foster/adoptive parent, so each brings his or her own experience to how they would be with Michael. 

In retrospect, only the last couple, a more uptight wife and put-upon husband, might be less than ideal for Michael. Even they, however, are not shown as monsters. They instead, are just not the right fit for John's son.

Nowhere Special has many quiet moments of beauty and sadness that never draw attention to themselves. When John makes a cake for his 34th birthday, he encourages Michael to keep adding candles. Michael, in his innocence, keeps adding red candles. It is when he offers a 35th candle that we get hit hard with John' reality.

The film gets to you even when we do not hear from John or Michael. McCusker's Rosemary tells John about her late husband, noting that she finally threw out his toothbrush last Christmas. Ella (Valerie O'Connor), the sole single woman that Shona presents to John, has a beautiful running story of how she got pregnant at 16 and decided to give the baby up for adoption. In her ramshackle apartment (she being caught unaware that the interview was for that day and not the next as she thought), she tells John and Shona about how she realizes that single parents do not often get the opportunity to foster, but how she has always longed for a second chance.

Those moments are deeply relatable, bringing Nowhere Special to almost feeling like a documentary. That the film is told very simply and quietly, with sparing but effective use of Andrew Simon McAllister's score, keeps things very grounded.

Nowhere Special is probably the best acted film of whatever year you see it in. James Norton gives an absolutely heartbreaking and moving performance as John. This a quiet man, one who loves his son deeply but who also struggles to accept the situation. When asked by Shona and agency head Mrs. Parkes (Laura Hughes) how he wants Michael to remember him, John states quietly, almost resignedly, "That I'm a window cleaner". In his own way, John does not want to face the reality of the situation. Aware that he is a dying man, he will not make a memory box for his toddler son, let alone tell him about his condition. As Nowhere Special goes on, we see how effective Norton is in making John a relatable, believable person.

He is very quiet but not withdrawn. He comes close only once to being harsh with Michael. In most films, I think, the moment when Michael becomes slightly rebellious over the wearing of other pajamas rather than his favorite ones might have been built up to almost operatic heights. Here though, we see that John is actually quite quietly proud of his son's rebellious streak. It is John's quiet manner, down to when he finally, gently, and beautifully tells Michael of what will come that moves you.

If you do not shed at least one tear when John starts looking over what to leave Michael, I question if you have a soul. 

Lamont's Michael too does wonderful work. He is not a cutesy kid, but a sweet kid, one who wants to emulate his father whom he loves, down to drawing marks on his arms similar to John's many tattoos. Nowhere Special is filled with these quiet moments that make things more real.

If I could fault Nowhere Special with anything, it is one scene where Michael has come across a dead bug and asks John why it isn't moving. Maybe the symbolism here is laid on a bit more than needed. That though is such a tiny flaw that it is almost stretching to find fault with the film. Maybe the selected parent was obvious, at least to me. 

I really am struggling to find fault with Nowhere Special. I did not expect to be as moved and touched by this simple, soft, straight story of a father and son.  Nowhere Special is a film that left me in tears, but not without hope. A simply beautiful film that should have a wider audience, Nowhere Special does not quite live up to its name, for it is one of the most special films that I have seen. 

DECISION: A+