When art mimics art

Son of Rambow (PG) 2½ stars Limited national release DIRECTOR Garth Jennings follows The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, his debut feature, with the rather odd Son of Rambow, about the friendship formed between two very different English schoolboys in 1982.

Bill Milner stars as Will in Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow (PG) 2½ stars Limited national release DIRECTOR Garth Jennings follows The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, his debut feature, with the rather odd Son of Rambow, about the friendship formed between two very different English schoolboys in 1982.

The initially promising idea has Will (Bill Milner), who has been reared as a Plymouth Brethren and is therefore forbidden to see television or movies, team up with the larrikin Lee (Will Poulter), who is being rather casually cared for by his older brother while their parents are away for an extended period.

Lee is so besotted with First Blood (the first of the Rambo films) that he is shooting an amateur remake using newly available video material, and he enlists Will as an actor.

It's a fun idea but quite awkwardly staged and, in the end, not particularly engaging. Part of the problem may be the film's status as a British-French co-production; the introduction of a French schoolboy (Jules Sitruk) seems unnecessary to the plot and only adds to the overall raggedness of the production.