The Nature of Nicholas (2002)

Lack of good storyline.

From my favorite movies..

Crappy film

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The psychological premise of the movie is familiar: two boys on the edge of puberty face a crisis in their friendship when Nicholas, the smaller and shyer boy, gives in to an erotic impulse and plants a peck of a kiss on his pal, Bobby, and Bobby recoils. Then the movie dissolves into murky surrealism. We're not sure whether the friendship is continuing -- real Bobby has been replaced by zombie Bobby, whom Nicholas hides in his bedroom and in a barn that serves as Nicholas' etymology lab. Bobby the silent zombie accepts Nicholas' gestures of care-giving, which include a bath, secretive feeding (who knew zombies need food?) and a shoulder massage. But there is no further overt affection shown except one kiss on Bobby's neck. Another introductory scene shows Bobby dragging a reluctant Nicholas to a school girl's party. The two take part in a game of spin the bottle. When it's Nicholas' turn to take a girl into a closet for a make-out scene, nothing happens except a shadowy man in long underwear pops up behind the clothes rack, apparently as a voyeur. Later on, we learn that the apparition is Nicholas' dead father, who makes a few other appearances for no clear reason.Secondary characters and choppy dialog add little to the story. We watch Nicholas' mother trying to be supportive of her son and getting little but sullenness in return. The mother's suitor gets a similar brushoff. Near the end, real Bobby hauls zombie Bobby away in a wagon while Nicholas watches. It's hard to know what to make of this scene -- they seem to be parting as friends, yet the mood suggests Nicholas has been abandoned. By this point, Nicholas has been transformed into a zombie himself, and is shown following his father's shade into an abandoned farmhouse. It is anyone's guess whether the real Nicholas is still out there somewhere or has surrendered to schizophrenic fantasy. I watched this film in a 7-part series on YouTube and I did plod through all seven segments. At the end, I wished I had tuned out after Part 3.

This film sensitively but starkly illustrates the fears, confusion, yearnings and sense of exclusion that a boy can feel when coming to terms with himself and the life around him. The seemingly tangential nature of the symbolism in this film is a mirage; We are seeing the symbols exactly as a boy of 10 or 12 who feels apart and bereft because of bereavement and his emerging sexual orientation would see them, and the confusion we as viewers feel is his confusion, and the viewer will love this boy, and his friend, but will share their feelings of palpable awkwardness at the same time. This film is a rare treat of an opportunity to relive our own days of awkwardness and come to understand them better through adult eyes, and maybe even remember those times fondly.

When we grow up we throw away our old personality we've become too big for like a snake crawls out of its old skin leaving behind a dry slough. So The Nature of Nicholas is a parable about coming of age when the boy should cast away his old, already dead nature to continue on the way into his adult life. Visual design of this drama in demonstrating this idea is absolutely unusual and innovative to the degree of becoming surreal. Don't you know the song "Lose This Skin" by The Clash: "Come with me, I thought he said, but that's not him anymore, he's dead. What's it like to be so free? So free it looks like lost to me. I've got to lose this skin I'm imprisoned in." The Nature of Nicholas is like an elaborate music video to this song.

Be Prepared, you may be confused..but to be honest The Nature Of Nicholas is one of the most creative and innovative films I have watched in a long time. It is an avante-garde surreal masterpiece of reality and hallucination that is like The Wonder Years on acid. It's ideas and themes may be familiar..but the way Erbach deals with them is fantastic. This film may not be for everyone, but for all of you who love to see something new in film making watch it if you can. Jeff Erbach is a great new Canadian director who is reminiscent in the likes of David Cronenberg, Guy Maddin & David Lynch.