Maven's Nest
Reel Life: Flick Pix
This “based on a true story” is a sweet portrait of facing adoption realistically.
By Nora Lee Mandel
NOWHERE SPECIAL
Directed and Written by Uberto Pasolini
Produced by Uberto Pasolini, Roberto Sessa, and Cristian Nicolescu
Italy, Romania, and UK. 96 mins. Not Rated.
With: James Norton, Daniel Lamont, and Eileen O’Higgins
In U.S. theaters April 26, 2024 by Cohen Media Group
Uberto Pasolini walks a very fine line to make Nowhere Special (2020) more sweet than schmaltz. Even though he loads it up with the pitfalls of melodrama.
In a Northern Ireland town, we first meet impossibly adorable four-year-old “Michael” (Daniel Lamont). He’s waiting for the return from work of his single father “John” (James Norton of PBS’s Grantchester). There’s immediately a hint of more of a problem because the baby sitter was sent by the social service agency. Gradually, we learn the 33-year-old father’s health is failing – with what I’ve thought of as “movie star disease” since seeing Bette Davis in Dark Victory (1939) – as we never do learn what’s weakening the tattooed window washer.
But the “inspired by a true case” rescues us from the too maudlin. At the agency’s office is the new social worker “Shona” (Eileen O’Higgins), who has to get him to confess the mother’s abandonment. Without explaining what regulations, she warns about “breaking rules” for him, so bureaucracy is not the usual issue. She accompanies “John” and “Michael” on visits to potential adoptive parents. These are almost reminiscent of the nanny interviews in broad comedies. But the decision-making stress on the father as he meets the varieties of people seeking a child do make real the issues of foster care (from his own life) and adoption, that my family has emotionally experienced.
Pasolini says the film’s empathetic style was inspired by the classic films of Yasujirō Ozu, though this more recalls the current Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu’s work with children, as in Nobody Knows (2014). While Pasolini also cites the work of the Dardenne Brothers, this lacks their searing neo-realism social consciousness that has continued through Tori and Lokita (2022), other than establishing the father’s working class bona fides. (So you may guess which adopter he’ll choose). Instead, the focus is on a poignant personalized portrait. The father realizes his increasing frailty is becoming apparent to his son, and he needs to be honest about their future and the reason for the continuing visits to strangers.
With most of the screen time spent on the togetherness of father and son, what finally makes the film worth seeing is the warm relationship between the appealing Norton and small Lamont.
4/26/2024
Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online. Her reviews are counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter:
Complete Index to Nora Lee Mandel's Movie Reviews
My reviews have appeared on: FF2 Media; Film-Forward; Lilith, FilmFestivalTraveler; and, Alliance of Women Film Journalists and for Jewish film festivals. Shorter versions of my older reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native titles.
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