Jason KingNever Let Me Go (8/10)
April 3rd 2011 01:03
:
Beautiful but slower than a snail
Category: Reviews
As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.
This film works on so many levels and then fails on so many others. It is based on the International Bestselling Book of the same title by author Kazuo Ishiguro. Just like the movie I was told the book is absolutely beautiful if you can face the battle of actually getting through it. While a momentous heartbreaking story of melancholia it is like trying to ride a snail for 200kms. It is slow and you need to persevere through the slog to gain the magnificence of the tale.
I literally looked at my watch many times in the movie and it wasn't until the end that I sat down over a nice pot of tea and considered the story did I realise how brilliant it actually was. This is a science fiction film with no gadgets, it is an alternate reality film that deals with the entire ethics of cloning for body parts. What if we could all have a clone or two locked away in certain areas of the world so we never run into them and their soul purpose of existence is to provide any organs we may require to extend our own lives? They have been grown and their entire sheltered life and education lets them know they will have so many operations in their life until they die or expire.
It is a heartbreaking story that deals with the existence of a soul, life, and humanity. How far will we go to extend our life? Do clones have a soul. of course they do - they may share the same genetics but every nano second from a cell's creation shapes that cell into a different and individual human being. But in this society people don't care, the life expectancy of humans has increased dramatically with a near elimination of life threatening diseases or injury - easy - just replace the parts with your own living spare parts person. People don't care if these spare parts people have their own feelings or the ability to love unconditionally. It is a tragic life for these people that have no future but imminent death.
Director Mark Romanek has brought us a film so touching it is like poetry on film while sipping nice port. He is known more for his much videos and music documentaries with his most known being Michael Jackson: HIStory on Film Volume 2. Also Madonna films, David Bowie docco and so on. He also made the chilling Robin Williams film ONE HOUR PHOTO. From what I have heard and read he kept incredibly close to the book and this will be the film's success and also it's downfall. I gather he made it more as an appreciation film of the brilliance of the book and it will appeal to fans of the story and of critics around the world but it won't put many bums on seats. In Australia it has just released this week and it is only playing at a very limited amount of cinemas.
The casting of this film was incredibly well done. The younger versions of the leads, Charlie Rowe, Izzy Meikle-Small and Ella Purnell set the story on a great track. I would have been happy watching the whole film with them in the leads. The story is successful in ripping your heart out because you saw these characters as children and naive adults stuck in a cruel but beautiful world. The thing that kept crawling through my mind - why not just run away? Nothing explains this - I then thought they don't need to - if you think of it as a science fiction film there is probably some secret military force that hunts them down and they are always tracked due to their wrist beepers but then from their very first day they are also aware this is their purpose of existence - they never think to run - it is their fate and they have to live with their own heartbreaking emotions throughout this - it is horrific.
The older characters and actors were also well chosen. Over the years I have grown more and more to dislike Keira Knightley and now I just find her annoying but this was great casting because out of these sad people you feel sorry for - Knightley plays the bitch of the bunch that you are allowed to dislike while feeling sorry for. So the casting in this sense worked for me. Carey Mulligan is growing on me - I haven't been swept up in the Carey Mulligan is the next HUGE thing going on but she was admirable and likeable in this role and was the perfect opposite of Knightley.
Andrew Garfield on the other hand was so stand out in this film he deserved an Oscar and to be showered in awards. It is easily his most challenging and dramatic role. As opposed to being all rich and pouty in The Social Network or just loopy in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus this overtook his brilliance in Boy A. he did have a gold character to play that was set up brilliantly by Charlie Rowe but the entire devastation of their situation is told through Garfield. He never grows up and accepts his fate, he is still the naive young child with remote hopes of salvation and he made me cry numerous times. The scene where he breaks down on the road had me sobbing. I can't rave enough about this performance - easily the best male performance of the year so far. I hope he can bring some of this brilliance to Spiderman and let it shine through the commercialism of the film.
The subtlety of the film is enhanced by some great original music from Rachel Portman who has written for such films as Chocolat, The Duchess, Emma and the The Ciderhouse Rules (amongst a massive bunch). The soft tones of the film are captured on film by Adam Kimmel who has filmed things like Capote, Lars and The Real Girl and Auggie Rose.
One interesting piece of trivia I picked up from the film. Carey Mulligan had to learn how to drive for this movie and did a two-week intensive course but failed the driving test. The production team had to shoot the scene on a private road, where she was allowed to get behind the wheel. Haha - this reminds me of a film I was in when a lot younger - it was called The Beast and was about a giant squid that attacked the coast of the US. I played a Corporal in the US Coast Guard and did not speak but the lead could not drive manual and she kept bunny hopping or stalling while driving into the Coast Guard barracks - there were 100s of extras and we all kept laughing and it took numerous takes that we all found it not funny by the end - besides that the director had to have a word to us about NOT laughing as she felt incredibly bad hahahaha.
Never Let Me Go is out now in Australia on limited release and you will probably find it at most art house cinemas. Worth a viewing, take tissues and get lots of sleep the night before as is it moves VERY slow. Worth 8 out of 10 and worth watching just for Garfield.
This film works on so many levels and then fails on so many others. It is based on the International Bestselling Book of the same title by author Kazuo Ishiguro. Just like the movie I was told the book is absolutely beautiful if you can face the battle of actually getting through it. While a momentous heartbreaking story of melancholia it is like trying to ride a snail for 200kms. It is slow and you need to persevere through the slog to gain the magnificence of the tale.
I literally looked at my watch many times in the movie and it wasn't until the end that I sat down over a nice pot of tea and considered the story did I realise how brilliant it actually was. This is a science fiction film with no gadgets, it is an alternate reality film that deals with the entire ethics of cloning for body parts. What if we could all have a clone or two locked away in certain areas of the world so we never run into them and their soul purpose of existence is to provide any organs we may require to extend our own lives? They have been grown and their entire sheltered life and education lets them know they will have so many operations in their life until they die or expire.
It is a heartbreaking story that deals with the existence of a soul, life, and humanity. How far will we go to extend our life? Do clones have a soul. of course they do - they may share the same genetics but every nano second from a cell's creation shapes that cell into a different and individual human being. But in this society people don't care, the life expectancy of humans has increased dramatically with a near elimination of life threatening diseases or injury - easy - just replace the parts with your own living spare parts person. People don't care if these spare parts people have their own feelings or the ability to love unconditionally. It is a tragic life for these people that have no future but imminent death.
Director Mark Romanek has brought us a film so touching it is like poetry on film while sipping nice port. He is known more for his much videos and music documentaries with his most known being Michael Jackson: HIStory on Film Volume 2. Also Madonna films, David Bowie docco and so on. He also made the chilling Robin Williams film ONE HOUR PHOTO. From what I have heard and read he kept incredibly close to the book and this will be the film's success and also it's downfall. I gather he made it more as an appreciation film of the brilliance of the book and it will appeal to fans of the story and of critics around the world but it won't put many bums on seats. In Australia it has just released this week and it is only playing at a very limited amount of cinemas.
The casting of this film was incredibly well done. The younger versions of the leads, Charlie Rowe, Izzy Meikle-Small and Ella Purnell set the story on a great track. I would have been happy watching the whole film with them in the leads. The story is successful in ripping your heart out because you saw these characters as children and naive adults stuck in a cruel but beautiful world. The thing that kept crawling through my mind - why not just run away? Nothing explains this - I then thought they don't need to - if you think of it as a science fiction film there is probably some secret military force that hunts them down and they are always tracked due to their wrist beepers but then from their very first day they are also aware this is their purpose of existence - they never think to run - it is their fate and they have to live with their own heartbreaking emotions throughout this - it is horrific.
The older characters and actors were also well chosen. Over the years I have grown more and more to dislike Keira Knightley and now I just find her annoying but this was great casting because out of these sad people you feel sorry for - Knightley plays the bitch of the bunch that you are allowed to dislike while feeling sorry for. So the casting in this sense worked for me. Carey Mulligan is growing on me - I haven't been swept up in the Carey Mulligan is the next HUGE thing going on but she was admirable and likeable in this role and was the perfect opposite of Knightley.
Andrew Garfield on the other hand was so stand out in this film he deserved an Oscar and to be showered in awards. It is easily his most challenging and dramatic role. As opposed to being all rich and pouty in The Social Network or just loopy in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus this overtook his brilliance in Boy A. he did have a gold character to play that was set up brilliantly by Charlie Rowe but the entire devastation of their situation is told through Garfield. He never grows up and accepts his fate, he is still the naive young child with remote hopes of salvation and he made me cry numerous times. The scene where he breaks down on the road had me sobbing. I can't rave enough about this performance - easily the best male performance of the year so far. I hope he can bring some of this brilliance to Spiderman and let it shine through the commercialism of the film.
The subtlety of the film is enhanced by some great original music from Rachel Portman who has written for such films as Chocolat, The Duchess, Emma and the The Ciderhouse Rules (amongst a massive bunch). The soft tones of the film are captured on film by Adam Kimmel who has filmed things like Capote, Lars and The Real Girl and Auggie Rose.
One interesting piece of trivia I picked up from the film. Carey Mulligan had to learn how to drive for this movie and did a two-week intensive course but failed the driving test. The production team had to shoot the scene on a private road, where she was allowed to get behind the wheel. Haha - this reminds me of a film I was in when a lot younger - it was called The Beast and was about a giant squid that attacked the coast of the US. I played a Corporal in the US Coast Guard and did not speak but the lead could not drive manual and she kept bunny hopping or stalling while driving into the Coast Guard barracks - there were 100s of extras and we all kept laughing and it took numerous takes that we all found it not funny by the end - besides that the director had to have a word to us about NOT laughing as she felt incredibly bad hahahaha.
Never Let Me Go is out now in Australia on limited release and you will probably find it at most art house cinemas. Worth a viewing, take tissues and get lots of sleep the night before as is it moves VERY slow. Worth 8 out of 10 and worth watching just for Garfield.
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