Ralph's Movie Reviews: NEVER LET ME GO

Saturday, October 30, 2010

NEVER LET ME GO

Science fiction drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Carey Mulligan: 28-year-old Kathy
Andrew Garfield: her longtime school chum Tommy
Charlotte Rampling: Miss Emily, headmistress of Hailsham Academy
Isobel Meikle-Small: 12-year-old young Kathy
Charlie Rowe: young Tommy
Ella Purnell: young Ruth
Keira Knightley: older Ruth
Sally Hawkins: new teacher Miss Lucy

REVIEW
After the opening scene the rest of the movie relies upon flashbacks to an earlier time when we learn that the students of this British co-ed boarding school have a special purpose in life. At the same time some of them have to deal with the teenage problem of a love triangle.

Things move slowly enough that no one will get left behind and viewers of British persuasion can better understand the various accents and will get more of the one-liners while we less fortunate ones sit and wonder what’s so funny?

Although she doesn’t get as much screen time as some of the others, this is Knightley’s best performance in years.

CLASSIFICATION

for nudity, sexual encounter and language.

No comments:

Post a Comment

my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.