Desperately Seeking Connection

I have been thinking alot about the direction that want this blog to take and whilst I am still a little undecided I don't want to stop writing while I'm thinking. So, in the meantime, and in line with a suggestion from someone whose opinion I greatly value, I am going to continue use this space primarily for the purposes of movie, book and theatre reviews.
With the odd bit of Jo-ness thrown in to keep it lively of course!

And first out of the starting blocks we have.........

Never Let Me Go

Director - Mark Romanek

Starring:

– Keira Knightley (the one from "Atonement")
- Andrew Garfield (the one from "The Social Network")
- Carey Mulligan (the one from "An Education")
- Charlotte Rampling (the one from "The Verdict" - a classic courtroom drama with Paul Newman which belongs on everyone's "must see" list http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084855/


As the lights came on at the Rialto Flicks and Flutes screening of Never Let Me Go my movie companion and I turned to one another with one accord and uttered the words:
“Blimey that was a bit grim”.
All around us similar sentiments were being expressed by a lightly stunned and primarily female audience.
Adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro's novel this is a beautiful looking, more than competently acted, but overall incredibly bleak, cinematic outing.
Despite fine performances across the board, it is really only the actors portraying the characters as children who succeed in drawing you in. Sadly they are not on screen for long enough.
I realised I was not fully engaged with their adult selves when I found myself critiquing their somewhat bizarre hairstyles (“why does Carey Mulligan have a bad mullet? Nice bouffant Andrew Garfield”) as opposed to being deeply moved by the triangular love story and the grim fate awaiting the childhood friends. Once the “secret” is revealed, surprisingly early on, and it becomes obvious that there is no chance of redemption for the badly coiffed threesome, the film becomes a maudlin trip down misery lane complete with longing looks and close up shots of tears slowly rolling down cheeks; and that is just the bloke!.
Director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) maintains a kind of detached observational style that doesn’t fully work with this material.
I wanted to care, I really did, but I couldn’t properly engage and I found that deeply frustrating. if you are already a little bit depressed this may well have you going home and reaching straight for the top shelf.
I would recommend seeing when you are in a very good mood. I didn’t hate it, but given its excellent pedigree I can’t help but wish that I had been able to like it more.