Never Let Me Go

Dir. Mark Romanek
Starring. Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield

Sometimes it's good to catch a flick that isn't all popcorn and candy and happy endings. There's nothing wrong with delving a bit deeper. It's good for the soul. Never Let Me Go is definitely not the fluffy whipped creamy piece of cake kind of film. It's more like the meat and potatoes of cinema; a hearty main course that takes a bit of time to digest and afterward just makes you want to sit on the couch and watch bad reality TV for hours.

The film, directed by Mark Romanek, is based on the novel of the same name written by Kazuo Ishiguro and tells the story of three friends whose tragic destiny limits their lives to barely reaching adulthood. Cathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield), and Ruth (Keira Knightley) grow up together in a strangely idyllic boarding school where their health and well-being is given ultimate priority and they are told stories meant to frighten them from ever leaving the school grounds. They are eventually told that they are special children and their fate is to have their lives "complete" once they reach their early 20's. The story is mostly about the relationship between the three children and how a complex love triangle develops between them as they grow up.

It's a tragic but beautiful film that explores the basic needs of human beings, particularly when faced with the cruel fact of our own mortality. For the characters of the film, this fact is intensified as their time on earth is cut even shorter than the rest of us. And through them we find out what is most important to those whose time is running out.

Never Let Me Go is visually stunning as every shot seems to highlight the ephemeral beauty of nature and life. The sci-fi aspect of the story (of which I have tried not to divulge since it's cleverly only alluded to in the film's trailers) is only a backdrop to the believability of the three main characters and the complexities of their friendship. The unique bond between them is truly brought to life by Mulligan, Garfield,and Knightley who all give deeply moving performances. Their younger counterparts played by Izzy Meikle-Small, Charlie Rowe, and Ella Purnell respectively are perfectly cast and provide an impressive basis for the characters.

Despite all of the promising elements of the film, it somewhere along the line falls a bit flat. Perhaps it's because the tone is consistently ominous without really any relief. The film moves along at a steady pace without any distinct ups or downs making it feel like it only skims the surface of a story that should have many depths to explore. It's hard as well for an audience to sympathize with characters that simply accept their fate without really putting up a fight for what they want.

Never Let Me Go is overall a poetic and beautiful film that despite dynamic performances from all its lead actors doesn't quite carry the emotional depth that it ought to.

Blue Valentine

(Review may contain spoilers.)

Dir. Derek Dianfrance
Starring. Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling

Indie dramatic character/relationship studies aren't necessarily my thing. Are they anyone's thing? We've all had experiences in relationships...must we study them? Why can't we just put them in a box, duct tape them tightly, and then store them in one of the back corners of the attic? No, I guess that's not in our nature. We have to think about them. We have to figure out what went wrong and why. We have to preserve them in formaldehyde and then pin them out on the table for dissecting. I will never understand us.

Maybe that's why I didn't get the point of Blue Valentine. Although it had some interesting moments, overall it was the same old story of boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl end up hating each other. Ryan Gosling plays Dean who is a modern day version of the guy he played in The Notebook. While working as a professional mover at a nursing home, he spots Cindy (Michelle Williams) who is visiting her ailing grandmother. He stalks her and forces her to go out with him (it's not creepy 'cause it's Gosling should be the tag-line of this movie), and thus the two embark on a loving relationship which slowly turns into a gradual distancing and eventually crumbles into a loveless marriage. The film jumps around in time unfolding the important facts of the relationship little by little and not in the actual order that they would occur. It's simply amazing. It's like they took time, and re-arranged it. I'm told it's called "editing."

Blue Valentine is not much more than the CliffsNotes to a relationship. It covers just the important moments that don't actually give you a deep understanding of any of it, but is just enough for you to get 75% of the questions right on the test. What about all the other moments? I want to see a movie about the time she does his laundry with hers and he's left chewed gum in a pocket. Or let's see the two of them going to the grocery store to pick up parmesan cheese. That's a film I want to watch. Bill paying. It doesn't get more real than that.

Believe it or not I was actually somewhat emotionally invested in the film until a nagging little thought pushed its way to the surface of my psyche. "Her?" It said, "...what's so great about her?" Then I waited patiently for Williams' character to have a redeeming moment, but it never came. She's not altogether and outright horrible, though. She's one of those dangerously elusive secret bitches, hidden well beneath a visage that says "I'm the kind of girl that's got it all." But seriously, what did she ever do for him? She killed the dog. She. Killed. The. Dog. Perhaps I never forgave her for that. I don't know if it's just the way the character is written or if I just can't get over Michelle Williams' permanent expression of surliness. She constantly resembles a toddler who's just had their favorite toy taken away. The only reasonable explanation I see for this is that in between takes she was being forced to suck on a lemon whilst simultaneously staring directly into the sun. If someone asked you, "What does a 'harumpf' look like?" all you would have to do would be to show them a picture of her face. Even her attempt at smiling is slightly painful and grimacey. Ok, that's enough of that.

I'm sure there is a time and a place in which Blue Valentine would be an appropriate and meaningful film to watch, I just can't figure out when that time would be. It's no good for date night because afterwards your girl will undoubtedly be like, "Sorry, babe. It's Gosling or nothing tonight." If you're married it will just induce the painful realization in both of you that no matter how much you once loved each other, you're doomed. If you're happily single you'll become more self-satisfied with your singledom which is fine but you feel that way already, so what's the point? If you're unhappily single you'll find yourself thinking "Well, I'd rather have that, than nothing," which is most depressing of all. If you are part of an alien race studying the strange and complex relations of humans, you may find this useful. Otherwise, isn't there something slightly masochistic about this desire to study the downfall of a relationship? Unless...maybe it's somehow comforting. Maybe we need to know that other people have gone through the same old shit we have in order to move on. I just don't know. It's good to be an alien.