Never Let Me Go [A Mark Romanek Film]

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In his highly acclaimed novel NEVER LET ME GO, Kazuo Ishiguro (THE REMAINS OF THE DAY) created a remarkable story of love, loss and hidden truths. In it he posed the fundamental question: What makes us human? Now director Mark Romanek (ONE HOUR PHOTO), writer Alex Garland and DNA Films bring Ishiguro's hauntingly poignant and emotional story to the screen. Kathy (Oscar® nominee Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION), Tommy (Andrew Garfield, BOY A, RED RIDING) and Ruth (Oscar® nominee Keira Knightley, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, ATONEMENT) live in a world and a time that feel familiar to us, but are not quite like anything we know. They spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. When they leave the shelter of the school and the terrible truth of their fate is revealed to them, they must also confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that threaten to pull them apart.
 
Director: Mark Romanek
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Nathalie Richard, Andrea Riseborough
In theaters: October 1st, 2010

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/neverletmego/

[Kellen]

Can't wait for this!

[polkablues]

I'm just going ahead and filling out my Xixax awards ballot now.  Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Leading and Supporting Females.  The jury's still out on that scarf-wearing fancy lad.

[cinemanarchist]

I am certainly intrigued but that scream in the road bit had me laughing. That was some Billy Walsh bullshit.

[picolas]

pretty bad trailer. seems like a movie that can't be marketed well though, unless you reveal whatever this big secret is about what they are..

[Stefen]

Just enough properness for me to dig.

I follow Romanek on Twitter and it was so cute how he was so nervous about what people were going to think of the trailer.

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[blackmirror]

. . . seems like a movie that can't be marketed well though, unless you reveal whatever this big secret is about what they are..

Truth.  It would work if a chorus performed a rendition of Radiohead's "Morning Bell" to it . . .

Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half

Release me
Release me


Release me



Release me   

Just kidding.  (I had to make a subtle dig at Mr. Fincher's TSN trailer.)

Shits and giggles aside -- I have high hopes for this film.  It is a fantastic novel.

[blackmirror]

double post

If assigned the task, I would tease the film this .

[picolas]

OR?

[Stefen]

haha holy shit that site is fucking awesome. a mashup comparer? omg yes. it must be spun off into its own thread because we love mashing shit together and seeing if it goes. remember that thread where we all created our own album covers using a random image, quote and word?

[blackmirror]

OR?

Hahaha.  Sold!  That preview will get me in line opening day!

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

The whole thing looks beautiful.

The beginning looks intriguing.

The end looks sappy.

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from my blog:

I love Mark Romanek.  Cool kids will name Jonze, Gondry or Cunningham as their favorite music video directors from the 90's, but mine was Romanek.  I could always tell within a few seconds if it was one of his videos and always liked them.  Curiously I wasn't in love with his debut film One Hour Photo.  I thought it was well made and well acted but I just didn't fully connect with it.  Eight long years later he returns with his sophomore film, an adaptation of the book Time Magazine called "The Best Novel Of The Decade".

Never Let Me Go looks like the work of an entirely different filmmaker than the one who made One Hour Photo.  The film is beautifully shot, but not showy.  Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley all give good performances, Mulligan in particular is someone I feel like I could watch for hours.  But again, something is missing.  The film is (beautifully) sad, but I didn't connect with it emotionally.

The beginning of the film teems with life as the younger characters find first love and are told the "secret" of the film. From that point on the film is a sad march towards the inevitable when it needs a few more injections of life into the story.  I needed another moment of happiness, of connection, of something to invest me in the adult versions of these characters.  This is a well made film but just misses being a great one.  I'm absolutely convinced that Romanek will make a masterpiece someday, he just hasn't done it yet.

[picolas]

i really didn't like one hour photo and never planned to give it a second chance but after finding out more about romanek and seeing as it was his first film and i was pretty young when i saw it and a lot of time had passed since then, i had pretty high hopes for this. i am now convinced that he's an awkward movie director.

right off the bat the first 20 minutes or so are quite awkward because he's dealing with a shitload of child actors, and i get the impression he's directing them like they're adults. very very few children at any given time can handle that kind of specific direction. most great child performances are lulled from them, partially improvised etc. romanek has no understanding of this. every moment is precisely crafted and the children come off as unrelatable awkward awkwards. BUT i saw what he was going for and was willing to overlook that.

then two of the children are replaced with REALLY GREAT ACTORS. i mean, carey mulligan is going to win an oscar. that's just an inevitability. and andrew garfield. i wanted to understand why he's about to appear in everything for the next few years and this movie answered that. he's freaking great. original, raw, uses his whole being, etc. oh and kiera knightley who is always pretty solid i think. so from that point on the performances are no longer a problem, and may very well be the best thing about the film.

sci-fi movies have a built-in hurdle that must be overcome quickly or they will fail: they must silence the audience's questioning of their premise; its probability, its plausibility, its logic.. at the very least, a good sci-fi must make the audience feel comfortable enough to meet it halfway and stop wondering about how this or that works and just enjoy it. i could not meet this movie halfway. there are far too many holes, many of them practically waved in your face, to let the questions be silenced. i'm sure the book does a better job in this respect because it's a first person narrative and it has a lot more time to explain things.

*vague quasi-spoils*

there are also questions of motivation.. a rumour that the characters follow despite knowing firsthand that it can't be true. now i can understand they're feeling pretty desperate, and they could perhaps delude themselves into believing the rumour could be real, but the movie basically never addresses or shows this idea of delusion. it makes their pursuit of the rumour very puzzling, so the full impact of what happens with that storyline is partly lost.

*end vague quasi-spoils*

all the flaws and awkwardness aside, i did find myself affected by it when i left the theatre. i did feel a deep sense of gratitude. and i did find myself thinking about it a lot over the last day. but damn, this movie makes so many obvious mistakes. i'm kind of angry at it for not being as amazing as it should have been.