Nowhere Special Is So Special You Want To Hold It Close To Your Heart

Nowhere Special

Starring James Norton , Daniel Lamont

Written & Directed by Uberto Pasoloni

Rating: **** ½

Not since….well since  never. I can’t remember when, have I  wept  so  much while watching  a  film. Certainly no Indian films in  recent memory. Funny how our films have forgotten how to make us sad.

Set in quaint Northern  Island, Nowhere  Special  is  actually located in the human heart.  It’s  easy to say , this is a film about learning to  cope with tragedy. But  how do you teach a 4-year child to do  that?  How  do you explain to him  that  his father is  going to die? And who explains  it to him when there’s just the two of them?

This is  a set-up for a tearful mawkish grief-stricken  manipulative film. Uberto Pasolini’s heartbreaking film is anything but manipulative or mawkish. It is  gentle  kind subtle and beautiful . It will break your heart into pieces,and then mend  it again when finally it tells us that   sometimes in life, there are no explanations for cruelty. Shit happens. Deal with it.

John tries. He is a 35-year old father, a window cleaner by profession, played  with such  a rich ruminative  subtlety by James Norton, that we forget he is not the boy’s real father.And the 4-year  old boy Daniel  Lamont as  Michael trying  to figure out why his dad is  so desperate to find another  home for his  beloved son, is  a little  treasure.Solemn and receptive. His  on-screen  chemistry with his screen-dad James Norton rings a  hundred percent true. Every look  of mutual understanding that the  two “boys”   exchange  will break  your heart.

 There  is  a sequence where John dozes off on the  sofa; the  4-year old Michael brings  a blanket and struggles  to cover his  precious daddy…

Excuse me , while I sob some more.

It is a heartbreaking scenario, potentially bleak but miraculously alchemized  into something magical  and precious by the  director’s determination to ensure that the  predicament  is  never milked for emotions. There  is  no time for tears.A  home must be found  for Michael before it’s too late.

The  potential candidates  for Michael’s  adoption  are a  motley bunch of the  self righteous  and consciously compassionate. It is  very clear who will get to keep Michael  after him.  But it is  never clear while God  made such cruel plans for Michael. What had he done to  deserve this fate?

And what have we done  to deserve such a beautiful   gentle  treat  of a film?