I really liked this movie, more than I thought I would. The casting was excellent, I thought, except the Paul character really didn't seem to look much like Paul, IMO. But Mimi and Julia were almost exactly how I pictured them as they were in real life.
I makes me think of James Cameron's
Titanic movie: You need to try to find actors who are talented enough for the part yet still resemble the real-life character, and that's gotta be difficult. And luckily,
Nowhere Boy had no annoying fictitious subplot a la Jack and Rose (although I understand a movie solely about the
Titanic would never have appealed to a mass audience.)
I thought both the casting and acting in
Nowhere Boy were great. I felt like I was really witnessing part of John's childhood/teen years.
One thing I'm curious as to why they left out was Mimi's famous refrain "The guitar's all right for a hobby, John, but you'll never make any money with it." (I probably paraphrased that incorrectly, but you guys know what I mean!
)