NOWHERE SPECIAL

UK, 2020, 96 minutes, Colour.

James Norton, Daniel Lamont, Eileen O'Higgins.

Directed by Uberto Pasolini.

Knowing practically nothing about this film going into the cinema, by the time the final credits came up I was sad that I was the only one there. This is the kind of film that many audiences would very much like to see, a small film – but that does not mean slight.

The particular Nowhere is Northern Ireland, Belfast, but a very important somewhere for John and his little boy, Michael. John is a working-class man, a window cleaner (and we do see quite a lot of suds, swipes, and sparklingly clean windows!), But the Russian wife of his three-year-old son has disappeared back to Russia. John is doing his best to care for Michael, bringing him up well.

There is a very impressive screen presence and performance by James Norton – quite a long way from his Anglican priest-sleuth in the 1950s village of Grantchester. And the little boy, Daniel Lamont, how could the director get such a realistic performance? The IMDb says that James Norton has no. He doesn’t. But an article which described how the actor spent a lot of time before and during the making of the film with Daniel and his actual family (who are accredited as chaperones during the final credits). Which means that the two obviously got on very well, the little boy comfortable in James Norton’s presence. Which also means, perhaps, that all the director had to do was just to ask the little boy to imagine the scene, give him some words, and simply train the camera on him. And that works wonders in terms of his performance. In fact, director, Uberto Pasolini, described Daniel as ‘extraordinarily aware and sensitive’.

I want to say that I felt great empathy for John and the little boy – relating to my own experiences. For my brother and myself, our mother died when we were young, leaving our father, age 36, a widower. In this film John has a birthday cake with 34 candles – and the little boy holding up an ominous extra candle. The theme is how does a father take care of his motherless son. I felt an extraordinary empathy for John.

And then came the complication, that John has a brain tumour, a limited time to live. He has meetings with social services, that a trainee was accompanying him on various interview visits, that he was looking for a family to whom he could entrust Michael: meeting the different families, listening to them, testing them, their points of view about family, upbringing, love and care, education. Which meant then that we were identifying with John, testing out our own reactions to the different parents, some wealthy, some with a number of children, some very lonely, some uppity, a single mother who had he given her child up for adoption.

John does his best but is highly emotional himself, looking at Michael and his responses to the various families, but how can we really read the reactions of a three-year-old?

By the end of the film, and the delight of a visit to the fair, we have become very familiar with this particular Nowhere Special, the way of life, the daily details, the range of families we have met. And, when John finally makes a decision, I realised I had gone with the flow and fully expected the choice that he actually made.

With no one in the cinema, handkerchief to teary eyes without any self-conscious embarrassment.

1. The title, nowhere special in the world – but special for John and Michael? In fact, Belfast?
2. The Belfast settings, homes, the range of families and homes, agency offices, the streets, the windows and cleaning, the fair? The musical score?
3. The situation: John, Michael’s mother, Russian, return to Russia, no contact? Michael, three, John looking after him? His window cleaning? The revelation of his illness, limited time? Wanting Michael to be adopted, going to the various families, the trainee going with him?
4. John, his personality, age, genial, diligent with his cleaning, its being affected by his illness, the cranky man telling him off – and later John throwing the egg at his car and windows? Ultimately having to sell the car and the ladder? Unable to climb the ladder? The sad experience with Michael’s mother?
5. The agency, the official, sympathetic, regulations for adoption? The trainee, her age, accompanying John, his outbursts attacking her? Yet her constancy?
6. The various families, visiting the affluent family, wanting Michael to have a good education? The large family, multiracial, the noise? The aristocratic mother, dominating, John not wanting Michael to go to that family? The unmarried mother, her sad story, yet genial? The various motivations for wanting to adopt Michael?
7. Michael, his character, age 3, abilities, talking, John coaching him, to say thank you? Silent, introverted, playing? Reaction to the various families? The devotion to his father, his father reading him the books? His being loved and cared for? Going on the various visits and his reactions?
8. John, visits to the doctors, coping with his health? The birthday cake, the 34 candles, the extra candle?
9. The visit to the fair, Michael enjoying himself?
10. Time ending for John, the decision, going to the single mother, the audience sharing John’s choice? And hopes for Michael?