Childhood reveries, suffused with Stallone visions

Somewhere under the "rambow" - more precisely, circa 1982 in a theater playing

First Blood

, which introduced Sylvester Stallone as troubled Vietnam vet John Rambo - two irresistible forces forged a wary bond.

Will and Carter, English schoolboys in the equivalent of sixth grade, have two things in common. Both are misfits. And both are fatherless. In the whimsical, unpredictable and - whee! - exhilarating Son of Rambow, the mates find a fairy godfather in the Stallone character, whose self-reliance and strength attracts them. But first, the boy who has never seen a movie has to get sneaked in by the boy who spends most of his spare time in front of the big screen.

While Will pickets the theater with his fundamentalist confreres, the Plymouth Brethren, Carter is inside with his videocam, pirating the film.

Will (Bill Milner), a wide-eyed 11-year-old, is a puritan who acts in, sublimating his emotions into wildly imaginative drawings of Oz-like dogs and tin men. Carter (Will Poulter), his gimlet-eyed classmate, is a libertine who acts out, tossing blunt objects and blunter epithets with abandon. Will has the artistic talent; Carter has the movie camera. They are a mismatch made in home-movie heaven.

Although he makes his own moving pictures in flip books, Will's first experience at the movies occurs when Carter takes him to see First Blood and he gets the same kind of kick from it that he gets from drawing. "Make believe. Not war," is the way the movie tag line puts it.

Written and directed by Garth Jennings, maker of the underseen The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the PG-13-rated Rambow is infectious family fun (provided the family members are aged 10 and up. There is brief violence seen in a PG-13 scene from the R-rated First Blood and some reckless behavior that has consequences.)

Jennings' playful film brims - and overflows - with mischief, from Will's drawings coming to animated life to Joby Talbot's teasing musical score that tickles the film's emotionally-heavy moments.

Both young actors are well-cast, as are the subsidiary characters. Worth special mention because he seems more cartoon than human is Jules Sitruk as Didier, a cigarette-slim French exchange student who resembles a lost member of the Ramones.

As is the case with many English comedies, some of the film's slang is hard to understand. But Jennings' sprightly films proves that although England and America are countries divided by the same language, they are united by slapstick comedy.

Written and directed by Garth Jennings. With Bill Milner, Will Poulter and Jules Sitruk. Distributed by Paramount Vantage.

Running time: 1 hour, 36 mins.

Parent's guide: PG-13 (violence and reckless behavior in a mostly comic context)

Playing at: Playing at Ritz Five and Showcase at the Ritz/NJ

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