Many films have been made about the circumstances of John Lennon’s demise, and documentaries have examined his life’s work, but Nowhere Boy is the first film to focus on the musician’s formative years, observing his difficult upbringing and the connections he made that would inform his later artistry as a member of The Beatles. Though not quite the probing biopic many will have expected, director Sam Taylor-Wood has crafted a loving ode to Lennon’s life, controlling traffic with a wink and a nudge, while coaxing an exuberantly charismatic performance from 2010’s sure-to-be breakout star, Aaron Johnson (who also stars in Kick-Ass this Spring).

The film depicts Lennon (Johnson) in his late teens, growing up in 1950s Liverpool, where he lives with his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) after his mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), suffered a nervous breakdown. John rarely sees his mother, but doesn’t let this bog him down: he is an aloof, carefree, brashly charming lad that spends most of his time goofing around with his friends, drinking, and trying to get his end away with the local girls. While not unexpected, this is in fact one of the film’s chief stumbling blocks; Lennon is simply too rad, clinging to the top of a moving bus and fingering girls in secluded locations, giving the film an air of self-conscious coolness that takes away from its stature as a “serious” biopic. I do not know if Lennon really did ride on top of a bus as depicted, but I doubt it.

Primarily, Nowhere Boy is concerned with two types of narrative: the first is his personal life, where he jostles between living with his Aunt and his mother (who he discovers early on lives just around the corner), unaware of a truth that both of his relatives have been withholding. This is juxtaposed with the precursors to his professional life, such as his being introduced to a fifteen year-old Paul McCartney (Thomas Sangster) and, of course, George Harrison (Sam Bell), both with whom he would later form The Beatles.

The film’s chief issue is that while the strands work well separately, they are treated as disparate throughout and never connected in a convincing way. Even when the dramatic beats reach quite a resonant apex at the film’s climax, one must consider; how does this affect Lennon, the man, and why should we care? While the acting and direction are top-notch, often Taylor-Wood is keen to linger on inconsequential moments that depict Lennon as “cool” without really allowing us to get under his skin (although one scene of Lennon finishing a pint in the early hours of the morning is gorgeously shot). Furthermore, when we finally get to the dramatic meat of the matter, a portentous musical score booms in, just in case you weren’t sure that it was meant to be emotional and gloomy. Still, when the film works, it works very well, and if one views the film on its own terms – not as a grandiose biopic with psychological complexity, but a breezy travelogue of how charming, and how audacious Lennon was as a youngster – it is surely satisfying, even if the baffling sexual tension between John and his mother is alarming.

Buoying the picture is Aaron Johnson’s rather magnificent portrayal of the adolescent Lennon, bearing both a decent physical resemblance to the young man, and nailing the accent and mannerisms perfectly. Taking the overly cute, less serious depiction of Lennon as a given, Johnson makes it difficult to imagine many others in the role, and he nails the dramatic passages also, notably going on a swearing tirade at his Aunt after she sells his prized guitar. Kristin Scott Thomas herself shines as the cantankerous but caring Mimi, and Anne-Marie Duff is a delight as Lennon’s emotionally conflicted, strangely attractive mother, while not forgetting the unique glimpse that Thomas Sangster gives us into the early life of a pint-sized Paul McCartney.

Although the film doesn’t namedrop The Beatles even once, it playfully skirts around it while providing enough playful references to please Beatles diehards. Those looking for connections between his tempestuous upbringing and his unique artistic achievements will be left looking for more, but the film paints an adequate portrait of a charming and talented young man whose later demise was perhaps as senseless as one dismissing the film simply because it won’t suture a false link between two very different aspects of his life.