The New York Times Faces to Watch has Anne-Marie for "Nowhere Boy":The New Season Film Breaking Out of the Mold
Anne-Marie Duff, 'Nowhere Boy'

The stage and screen actress Anne-Marie Duff, above, is a highly regarded star in Britain, and we can only hope she will soon be one here, because just about everything she does is astonishingly good. The opportunity arises with “Nowhere Boy” (Oct. 8), Sam Taylor-Wood’s drama about the adolescent John Lennon (played by Aaron Johnson, above) and his relationships with what can fairly be called his two mothers: Ms. Duff’s Julia, who gave him up when he was 5, and Kristin Scott Thomas’s Mimi, the strict but loving aunt who took him in.

Ms. Duff recently showed off her strong, sassy side as Fiona, the take-charge daughter in another family drama, the funny, sometimes hair-raising British series “Shameless,” which became a cult favorite among younger American viewers. Her febrile Julia, however, occupies the other end of the spectrum. When the 16-year-old John discovers that she has been living nearby for years with another family, he seeks her out, and her thrilled response is off the charts. Wide-eyed and vivacious, Ms. Duff gives us an almost weirdly youthful mum, with her unruly love of rock ’n’ roll and her fan’s devotion to her son’s band.

In Ms. Duff’s finely detailed and unnerving performance, Julia is both charismatic and alarmingly inappropriate, flirting with members of the band and doting so hungrily on her increasingly hostile son that your heart breaks even as your brain is sending up emergency flares. But looking past the frivolity, we can see how fragile she is. When her son is frankly cruel to her, and Mimi piles on, she all but shatters before our eyes.

What Ms. Duff ultimately shows us is the agony at this woman’s core. It is no fun to be so unstable; for Julia, it’s the loneliest thing in the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/movies/12breakthrough.html?_r=2

The Weinstein Company is getting ready to push this film. I saw it twice and thought Kristin Scott Thomas was great, you felt she was Aunt Mimi. Aaron was good as John. I thought Anne-Marie just overacted in most of the movie. The scene that made me laugh at her the most was when she and John were in the movie theater watching Elvis. Such bad overacting, and to me there were a few more. I have never seen her on stage but I think that is where she must shine. I would love to see her in a play. Very good in "The Magdalene Sisters" and "Is Anybody There", her other movies to me she is just OK.  I am still glad she is getting press here and maybe with the premiere she'll have some light on her. I do think she'll go to the premiere, even though I read that it will be small. Also I hope that she gets to work with a good director sometime soon that can bring out the best in her.


Edited 1 time by Island29 Sep 17 10 8:00 PM.