1. Keira Knighley & Carey Mulligan have their arms crossed and are a little cranky because the movie is just okay....and that's too bad.2. I loved the book Never Let Me Go, and highly recommend it. The last thing you want to read is a "the book is better than the movie" type of post...but, well......it is.
3. My wife, who had never read the book was confused and parts that are climatic and meaningful in the story or lost on the viewers in the dialogue.
4. Between this film, The Social Network, and as the new Peter Parker in Spider-Man...some people seem real excited about Andrew Garfield. Andrew Garfield as Tommy got the job done, but didn't impress.
5. When I first posted on this film March 2009 I presented some dream scenarios for this project. In my post I said I wished Joe Wright (Atonement) was directing this film. I still wish Joe Wright had directed this film.
6. Early word on this film from Variety had strong critical buzz, but right now it's just on the edge of "fresh" on rottentomatoes.com with a 61% fresh rating. And I think that's just about right. I'd say you can skip the popcorn nor do you need Kleenex, although when I watched some people were eating popcorn while others were crying, so you may be on one end of the extreme.
7. If you're not familiar with the literary sub-genre "alternate history" researching this term could be great for post-film coffee shop talk.
8. Is this an Oscar ceremony must see? I'd say probably not - some critical love could do some magic, but I have a feeling this will drift away, with the potential for a nomination here or there (such as original motion score composed by Rachel Portman).
9. Reading my first 8 items makes it seem like I'm totally down on this film. I'm not. I enjoyed it, but without the context of the book, I think I may have been lost. I think the film could yield some good discussions. Kazuo Ishiguro is a great author and his books warrant discussion.
10. I blame most of the failings of this film on screenwriter Alex Garland. I'm not sure if I blame director Mark Romanek or not. I certainly credit Carey Mulligan and Kiera Knighley for their roles in this film - despite the fact that Carey Mulligan's hair in this film is generally unsightly.
3 comments:
I'm enjoying reading the critics' thoughts on this. Glad you liked Keira and Carey...I'll wait until I see it to read the book (a la Atonement).
I love Ishiguru and Keira Knightley--maybe there's hope I'll like the movie; I'll see it anyway.
You'll definitely be impressed with Garfield in "The Social Network," I can assure you. I read Ishiguro's novel, and was similarly taken by it, and I plan to see the film this weekend. The mixed response to it has intrigued me.
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